Faking It
by georginacastleorpington
Summary: When Rose Weasley's boyfriend breaks up with her, her cousins come up with the ultimate plot to make him jealous - a fake relationship, with none other than Scorpius Malfoy aka. the guy she's sworn to hate . RW
1. Chapter One

**I wrote this when I was on holiday, and don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Don't Meddle With Love, I just thought I'd put this up as well ******** It's a multi-chaptered fic, but I'm not planning on it being too long…maybe 7 or 8 chapters.**

**Anyway, enjoy, and let me know what you think!**

**G xoxo**

_You were all the things I thought I knew,_

_And I thought we could be…_

_You were everything, everything that I wanted._

_We were meant to be, supposed to be but we lost it._

_All of the memories so close to me just fade away._

_All this time you were pretending,_

_So much for my happy ending._

_-My Happy Ending, Avril Lavigne_

**-CHAPTER ONE-**

"Rosie, why are you still in your pyjamas?" my cousin Al (strictly speaking it's Albus, but being blessed with such an unfortunate name I can hardly blame him wanting a nickname) demanded the second he flooed into the kitchen of the burrow. I happened to be sitting on the worksurface drinking a mug of tea in the aforementioned pyjamas. Since our parents had gone on a Christmas break with our muggle grandparents, Hugo (my brother) and I were staying with our Grandparents in the burrow – the site of the annual Christmas Weasley bash.

"Why shouldn't I be?" I smarted back, reaching for a biscuit. I know, I know. Biscuits contain _calories. _Shock horror. Personally, I'm not one to miss out on a chocolate digestive no matter what their calorific content is. However, despite my near-constant eating I still keep my five foot four frame in shape, what with the endless Quidditch training regimes I suffer through. Only joking, I enjoy them really, they're just pretty tiring.

"My friends are flooing over in about two minutes," he said, and smirked slightly as my jaw dropped mid-chew. "Grandma Molly said they could come to the Christmas dinner as long as they helped sort out the food. Seeing as your parents aren't coming, we have food going spare."

"By friends, I assume you mean those insensitive arrogant sods you waste your time with," I said with a groan. I drew the worst conclusion from Al's Slytherin inspired smirk. "Shit."

"Language, Rosie! Aunt Hermione would have your head if she heard you say that," Al told me, grinning widely and reaching for a biscuit himself.

"She wouldn't if she knew the context. I can't believe you invited your _Slytherin_ friends," I remarked, in wide-eyed horror. "Your brother is going to murder you."

Al shrugged nonchalantly, "So? I have Slytherin cunning on my side."

Yep, you heard right. A Potter. In Slytherin. It almost makes you want to faint at the thought, though apparently Grandma Weasley did when she found out. I could hardly believe it myself at the time. When little Al wandered up to the Sorting Hat, after I'd given him an encouraging smile, I never would have imagined that after several minutes deliberation it would put him in Slytherin. No one did. The whole hall was practically silent and poor Al shuffled to the Slytherin table with his face as red as a tomato. He sat down at the table and the boy sitting next to him, a pointy-faced blonde boy clapped to break the silence and I joined in, so that a polite smattering of applause covered up the gob-smacked mutterings.

I always said the Sorting Hat was off it's head after that (excuse the pun) even though it did put me in Ravenclaw, where I'm certain I belong, the library being my favourite place to hang out.

"But he has all his muscles from his Quidditch days," I reminded him, grinning at the memory of James Potter's, Al's older brother, somewhat arrogant habit of boasting about his upper-arm strength.

"Yeah, but I have a _wand_," Al said, as if stating the obvious, "and, unlike him, I know how to use it."

"Yeah, to style your hair!" I smirked at him and we both burst out laughing.

It was common knowledge that Albus Potter worked on his hair. Despite having his father's trademark messy hair at 11, it had steadily got straighter and neater – or in his words 'dorkier'. So, he used various spells ever morning to achieve the effortless windswept look that seemed to be the fashion among the guys at Hogwarts.

A fashion trend that was originally started by the tall, striking blonde guy currently stepping out of the fire, the green flames licking his robes as if in adoration.

To say that Scorpius Malfoy, Al's Slytherin best friend (I was his Ravenclaw best friend – as he told me frequently) was good looking was an understatement. I surveyed him standing in front of me over my fifth chocolate biscuit. He was gorgeous as hell, but don't get the wrong idea – I certainly don't like him, and the idea of dating him is as disgusting as it is unlikely. I prefer the intellectual type, so to speak, like my boyfriend of the moment, fellow Ravenclaw, Lorcan Scamander.

So, yes, Scorpius is jaw-droppingly handsome with a killer smile, but I will certainly never date him. Because he is a sick arrogant pig.

And he's a Malfoy (that's reason enough, I think).

"Rosie?!" Scorpius exclaimed on seeing me, doing a double-take and almost knocking over my Grandma's pile of washing. That is a very un-Malfoy-like thing to do. Malfoy's are always calm and collected not clumsy and unco-ordinated. Strange.

"Be careful, you clumsy buffoon," I told him, between mouthfuls, "you're here to help not to cause as much damage as physically possible."

"Is that you?" he asked, eyeing my attire. OK, so I didn't look my best – I'm not a morning person – but to say I was unrecognisable is slightly worrying.

"Who did you think I was? Peeves?" I snapped, sarcastically. Scorpius dusted down his jeans and polo shirt and collected himself. As soon as his oh-so-familiar smirk clawed it's way back onto his face I knew he was back to his normal hideously irritating self.

"Sorry, I hardly recognised you in your clothes…or lack of I should say," he remarked his gaze sweeping me and taking in my whole appearance. I looked down. I was wearing flannel boxers and an old t-shirt with a faded picture of a rather ugly cat. Add to that the image of a pair of large fluffy white slippers, and to be honest, I didn't blame Scorpius for having to suppress his laughter.

I jumped off the worksurface, sniffing indignantly at him and marched over to the bottom of the stairs. Then I paused and quickly rushed back to grab another biscuit. I arrived in time to see Scorpius giving Al a one-eyebrow-raised smirk.

"I forgot my snack," I told them, as they looked at me. I felt Scorpius' eyes linger uncomfortably on my legs, so I quickly grabbed the entire packet of biscuits and then repeated my unaffected march to the bottom of the stairs.

"The fat will go straight on your hips," I heard Scorpius' drawling voice inform me as I put one foot on the bottom step.

"I don't care," I told him, sticking my tongue out (I know…immature) and dashing upstairs to change in the comfort of my Aunt Ginny's old room and nibble a few biscuits while I was at it of course. I quickly pulled on a casual denim skirt which I reserved for the holidays due to it's tatty state, a pair of tights (it was cold!) and a plain blue polo-shirt, and resisting the urge to grab another biscuit, I skipped down the stairs, running a hand through my messy auburn curls in an attempt to tame them. To no avail.

When I reached the kitchen, I noticed that another of Al's friends had arrived: Guilliano Zabini, a messy haired (to fit the fashion craze) Italian boy known to the female population of Hogwarts as Tall, Dark and Hands. Tall, because of his height; Dark, because of his handsome dark features; and hands because of his inability to keep his hands to himself in the presence of anyone female.

I rolled my eyes ostentatiously as upon my entrance to the kitchen he threw me a decidedly dirty wink.

"Well, well, well, Rosie Weasley," he remarked with an insinuating smirk. Merlin, this boy could make something as innocent as a charity appeal seem like some sort of ad for sexual favours.

"Oh wow, you recognise me! That's better than brainless-goon next to you," I said, my voice dripping in sarcasm, with a nod towards Scorpius.

"I don't blame him," Guilliano giving me the once-over. "Who knew you had curves under those hideous school-robes."

"You know what shocks me?" I asked, edging towards the living room door in an attempt to escape the sublime smarminess of their company. Guilliano shook his perfectly coiffured hair arrogantly. "That your perverted comments actually _work_ on some girls. And, in a couple of years they'll be allowed to _vote_." I shook my head, making a point of appearing disgusted by the thought. Guilliano laughed heartily, and exchanged a somewhat disturbing, from my point of view, smirk with Scorpius.

"So, I suppose I'll have to work a bit harder than my usual lines with you then?" he concluded, his dark eyes flashing at me.

I covered up my slight surprise with a sneer. Yes, Guilliano was renowned for shamelessly shagging almost every girl of a suitable age available to him, but it wasn't exactly like him to make a move on _me_. Being a slight bookworm, I wasn't exactly first choice for a one-off thing in a broom cupboard. "You'll have to work significantly harder. And you'll have to fight off my boyfriend."

Scorpius spluttered on his drink. "_You_ have a boyfriend?!"

"Is that so hard to believe?" I demanded, as Scorpius looked slightly sheepish for blurting that out.

"Er…no," he muttered. "Who?"

"That's hardly any of your business," I replied, folding my arms and hoping that Al would stop stifling his laughter in the corner of the kitchen to come to my defence.

"I bet it's some spotty little dork," Guilliano announced loudly, to the suddenly silent kitchen. "And they've only go so far as Eskimo kisses." Guilliano smirked at me and when I turned my thoroughly annoyed glare to face him, he licked his lips slowly. I rolled my eyes. Merlin, could he be any slimier if he tried?

"As I said, it's none of your business," I repeated, giving him a look that could kill and he stopped trying to appear seductive. Thank god. It was almost making me want to vomit.

"Al?" Scorpius asked, turning to face Al who had practically shoved his entire fist in his mouth to stop himself laughing at me. "Who is it?" I sent Al a look that clearly said 'DO NOT TELL'.

But Al is a boy. Therefore, incapable of restraining himself when it came to embarrassing his favourite cousin.

"It's Lorcan Scamander." All three of them burst into evil Slytherin hysterical laughter.

Trust me, he was going to pay later. A mince pie smashed in his face would be adequate payment, I thought conspiratorially and smirked slightly at the thought.

"You're going out with that….that…" Guilliano appeared incapable of finishing his statement due to his uncontrollable laughter.

"Nancy boy!" Scorpius finished for him, doubled over and clutching his stomach.

I threw Al an exasperated look and he had the decency to look a little sympathetic.

"I'd rather date him over you anyday," I told them defiantly, and turned on my heel to flounce out of the room.

"Well, if you change your mind I'm always waiting for you, Rosie," Guilliano managed to say through his chuckles. I turned around again to face him, and was about to speak before Al did, albeit the fact that he was still laughing.

"Oi! That's my cousin you're talking about!" Al reminded him, and Guilliano gave him a withering look.

"You hit on my sister at my 17th," Guilliano stated, raising an eyebrow and smirking at him.

"All's fair in love and war, mate," Scorpius said, clapping his two friends over the back as they dissolved into a renewed fit of laughter. I snorted. Boys! Honestly.

A loud bang brought them to their senses. I automatically turned to the source of the noise and saw that an owl had flown down the chimney and had collapsed in a soot covered mound at the bottom of the fireplace. The owl ruffled it's feathers and flew over to the table, causing a cloud of soot to form around it. Once the cloud had cleared I leant forward and removed the letter. It was addressed to me.

I hurried upstairs to open it, knowing that if I opened it in the vicinity of the three Slytherin musketeers, anything the letter said would be over the school by the second day back after the Christmas holidays. I didn't want to take that risk.

I opened it in my room, after shutting the door.

_Rose,_

_I don't know how to put this in a way that you'll be OK with. I guess it's kind of impossible. But, I need to say it, so here goes. I don't think we can be together any more. _

I frantically read the line again hoping I had misread it.

_You're a great person, but I've found someone else, and it's not fair to you, or to her. We've been dating since about November, but I couldn't bring myself to tell you because I knew it would hurt your feelings._

_Sorry, I hope we can still hang out like we used to._

_Lorcan_

Damn right it would hurt my feelings! I thought bitterly. I scrunched up the letter, and choked down a sob as tears sprung to my eyes.

How could I be so deluded to think that we belonged together?

I opened the letter again and smoothed it out, before reading it again and again, until my vision turned blurry with tears.

He broke up with me.

I repeated it in my head, trying to get round it.

He broke up with me for some other girl. Some other girl that he had been dating whilst still going out with me. I hated him and I hated her. Didn't she have the decency not to make a move on someone else's boyfriend?

Didn't he have the decency to tell me to my face, instead of writing me a stupid letter in the hope that I wouldn't still be hurt? As if a piece of paper would make the situation any better.

I crumpled up the letter again and made a mental note to burn it at the first opportunity. I buried my head in my pillow and tried to swallow my hurt.

After several minutes of sobbing uncontrollably into my pillow, I sat up and wiped my eyes on the corner of my duvet. I would go tell Lily, I resolved. Her regular stream of boyfriends made her experienced in these matters, she'd know what to do, I told myself.

I grabbed the crumpled up letter and crushed it a bit more in my fist to make me feel better. It didn't really help, so I decided to go through it in the fireplace in the kitchen. No time like the present.

I swung open my door, wiping the last tear away from under my eye. Praying to god that the idiot boys had gone out or something, I hurried down the stairs and threw my letter in the fireplace. Somehow, the sight of the paper catching fire and burning away lifted my spirits slightly, but did nothing to the sadness I was feeling. I sat cross legged on the floor and gazed absent-mindedly into the flames until Grandma Molly came bustling over and almost hit me over the head with a frying pan she was levitating out of the cupboard behind me.

"Oh sorry, dear!" she said, picking the pan up with her hands.

"That's ok," I muttered miserably. She must have noticed the less-than-cheerful tone that I spoke in as she before returning back to the stove she rubbed my shoulder in a motherly way.

"Is everything alright, Rosie?" she asked.

I sniffed quietly. "Lorcan broke up with me," I mumbled.

"That lovely polite tall boy?" Grandma Molly looked shocked that lovely polite boys would do something as impolite as breaking up with someone. "I'm sorry, dear." She genuinely sounded sorry, and I turned and gave her a sad smile. My mouth felt like it had forgotten how to smile. "He was a lovely boy, but not lovely enough for my little Rosie."

"Thanks Grandma," I whispered back, as I stood up and let her pull me into a flowery-smelling hug.

"Go talk to Lily," she told me. "She's had more boyfriends than your Grandad's got plugs." Despite myself, I couldn't help but giggle lightly at Grandma Molly's reference to Grandad Weasley's extensive plug collection. "Well, at least we got a smile on your pretty face!"

I smiled again, with a little more enthusiasm than before, "I'll go find Lily then."

"You won't have to look long. She's in the living room writing an owl to someone or other," she told me, waving me towards the living room with a kindly smile.

"So, let's get this straight, he dumped you for another girl?" Lily asked, a frown forming above her bright brown eyes.

"Yes. He dumped me for another girl who he was meeting with _whilst we were still together,_" I said for what must have been the millionth time.

"He dumped _you_ for another girl?" she repeated, incredulous.

"Do I have to say it again?"

"No, I understand you…I just don't understand _him_," she frowned. I gave her a questioning look. "Well, you are pretty much perfect. How could he find better than you?"

I snorted loudly. "I am _not_ perfect!" I told her indignantly.

"Yes, you are," she said pointedly. "You are amazingly clever, brilliant fun to be around and absolutely gorgeous."

I punctuated each of her remarks with a disbelieving snort.

"Though, maybe he heard you snorting. That would put anyone off for life," Lily joked, and I rolled my eyes in reply.

"I'm sorry, but I thought you just put ME and _absolutely gorgeous_ in the same sentence," I said.

"Face it, Rosie. You are far prettier than you give yourself credit for." I snorted again and she tried to hit me over the head with the cushion next to her, but I ducked just in time.

"Oi!"

"Rosie, have you actually looked in a mirror recently?" Lily demanded, looking very business-like. Last time I saw her like that, she had staged a single-handed mission to turn Hugo from Shy Boy to Quidditch Wonder. Surprisingly, she had succeeded as Hugo was now Keeper on the Gryffindor team. Which is why I was slightly worried about what plan was crossing her devious little mind. She's very organised, is our Lily.

"Yes," I replied, my tone defensive. Lily raised her eyebrows. "It broke when it saw me." I shrugged.

"Don't lie to me, Rose Weasley!" Lily said, holding the cushion up again threateningly.

"Come on, Lily. Who _hasn't_ looked in a mirror at some point in the last month of their life. They're in every toilet at Hogwarts," I told her, batting the cushion out of her hand.

"If that's the case, then why haven't you realised that your pretty," she demanded. Before I could speak, she began talking again. "I am going to _make_ you realise your amazingness!" Oh dear! This is 100%, full-blown Lily Mission Mode. I'm her new victim. Merlin help me. "First, we are going to make your idiot of an ex-boyfriend sick with jealousy, then we are going to stomp on his head!"

"I'm head girl, I can't 'stomp on his head'. I would lose my title," I interjected.

"Metaphorically, genius."

"Oh." I grinned sheepishly. "Uh…Continue."

She rolled her eyes and grinned, before returning to her Mission Mode. "Secondly, we are going to make every girl in Hogwarts green with envy at the thought of you!"

"Good luck," I muttered sarcastically.

"I can work wonders," Lily told me, then she looked up with a diabolically evil grin plastered on her boy-entrancing features. "Your first task is to get rid of your disgusting school uniform."

"But I have to wear that! Otherwise I'll lose my title!" I exclaimed in horror.

"Stop worrying about your stupid title! You'll still be wearing uniform, just slightly more…fashionable," she said thoughtfully.

"By fashionable…do you mean?"

"Fitted shirt. Short Skirt," she grinned. "Oo! That rhymes!"

"I'm not wearing a short skirt," I said stubbornly.

"Do you want to stomp on your idiot ex-boyfriend's head?"

"Metaphorically, yes, of course…" I said.

Lily grinned again. "Then you better do every single thing I tell you to do."

I gulped. Boy was I in for a treat.


	2. Chapter Two

**-CHAPTER TWO-**

"_You!" Lily screeched, pointing at her tall raven-haired brother with venom. "Get out here."_

_Al was used to his sister's somewhat angry – or feisty, some would put it – personality, and so got up and left the room without a fuss, knowing that she was no doubt making a mountain of a molehill._

"_What now, Lilykins?" he asked, arranging his features to look as bored as possible. She kicked him in the shins and brought him to his senses. He gave her his full attention. "What was that for?"_

"_It was for neglecting your best friend," she said._

"_What? He's in there…and he's fine," Al said, pointing towards the living room in slight confusion. _

"_No, moron! The other one!" _

_Realisation finally dawned on him. "Oh, Rosie! Why, what's wrong with her?"_

"_Her idiot boyfriend dumped her by owl yesterday afternoon. Not that you noticed, what with your sleepover here with your stupid friends," Lily said pointedly. Al looked a little worried. Rosie's boyfriend broke up with her? He had never liked Lorcan Scamander, he decided. He also felt a little guilty. After Grandma Molly's Christmas party he had gone straight back home with his parents and his friends, and they'd stayed up until six in the morning eating the food they nicked from the kitchen. He felt bad that he had neglected his best friend since forever, his cousin Rosie._

"_Oh god. What do we do? Is she OK?" Al asked his sister frantically._

"_She's down in the dumps, and no wonder. They did date for 8 months," Lily looked surprised, as if it was a feat to stay with someone so long. The longest she stayed with anyone was a month, tops. "I'm plotting with her to make him jealous."_

"_How?" _

"_I'm making her dump her baggy clothes and look as gorgeous as she does in the holidays when she wears muggle clothes," she told her brother confidently._

"_What do I do?" he asked her, unsure how to comfort her. Lorcan had been Rosie's first boyfriend, so she'd never been dumped before. He didn't know how to deal with it._

"_Just talk to her. She needs you at the moment, more than your idiot slime friends," Lily said, giving her brother a warm smile. He smiled nervously back. Operation Cheer-Up-Rosie was underway._

_Lily bounded upstairs a second later, her long red hair swishing in her wake. Al wandered back into the living room and sat down, deep in thought. His friends were leaving in an hour, and he could invite her over and feed her biscuits, and offer to pummel Lorcan's face in._

"_What was that about?" Guilliano asked, looking at him with an inquisitive frown._

"_Nothing," Al said, wondering whether he should tell his friends. He decided after a second that he would tell them. They would understand, and maybe they could help him get revenge on Lorcan. "Actually, there is something." Scorpius raised an eyebrow in faint amusement. "Rosie's boyfriend broke up with her yesterday afternoon and Lily wanted me to help cheer her up."_

"_What are you gonna do?" Guilliano asked, slightly more interested now that he knew Rosie was single – not that that had stopped him in the past. He might seem sleazy, but he just liked company…female company._

"_Give her a packet of biscuits, and get back at her nancy-boy idiot of an ex," Al said._

"_I know how to get back at him," Scorpius said suddenly. Guilliano and Al both looked at him._

"_Beat him up?" Guilliano suggested._

"_No, too violent. I have to protect my head boy badge. No…we make him jealous," Scorpius said._

"_I know!" Guilliano announced. Al looked at him hopefully. "I'll date her and he'll be jealous that she managed to get with such a handsome fellow after so little time!"_

"_No, you're not going anywhere near her," Al told him forcefully. Guilliano might be a good friend, but when it came to girls, he wasn't the nicest of all guys. There was no way he was letting him near his favourite cousin. _

"_Then Scorpius can do it. What with his Greek-god charm," Guilliano said, un-phased._

"_I dunno…"Al said. Maybe this wasn't the best way to go about things. But then again…it would certainly work. Scorpius was by the far the best looking out of the three of them, and if Rose knew then she could play along. _

"_Maybe…not…" Scorpius said, slightly reluctantly. _

"_You're backing down? Why? She's gorgeous," Guilliano turned to Al apologetically, "Sorry Al, but she is!"_

"_I'll check with her first…you'd just pretend to be together for a bit," Al said, warming up to the idea. _

"_But, everyone knows we don't like each other. Wouldn't it be a bit suspicious?" Scorpius said._

"_You came up with the idea!" Al reminded him._

"_Fine, but you better get me a huge birthday present," Scorpius grinned at the two of them. "And she has to agree."_

"_You might have to stay away from your various girlfriends for a bit to make it more realistic," Guilliano added, grimacing at the thought of it._

_Scorpius crinkled his perfect nose. "I'll do it for two weeks," he added to the list of conditions. Al nodded. That was perfectly fair, besides it might do his friend good to only be with one girl at one time, even if the relationship was fake._

"_Nutter," Guilliano muttered, thinking that he didn't think he would be able to stay with one girl for a week, let alone two. Not unless they were someone really perfect._

*

0

I stepped into the fireplace and threw the floo powder at my feet and then said Al's address clearly to the green flames that had sprung up, and were licking my feet harmlessly. The familiar rush and spinning feeling of travelling by floo powder overcame me, and I shut my eyes tightly until my feet connected with solid floor. I stepped out of the fireplace and dusted myself down, before looking around. There were three boys sitting sprawled across Al's sofa. The very three boys that had been in my Grandparents kitchen the day before making fun of Lorcan.

Don't think about him, I told myself angrily, it would only make it harder to forget him.

"We heard about Lorcan," Al said, solemnly, and my stomach sank.

"Come to laugh some more about him have you?" I sniffed angrily, then I softened. "Come to think of it, I might join you."

"Go get a biscuit," Al added, smiling slightly, glad that I was making jokes. It meant that I wasn't too upset. In truth I was extremely upset, but at the same time, and I couldn't understand why, I felt slightly relieved. I would never have to listen to him complain when I wittered on about Quidditch aimlessly between writing essays in the library. 'Can't you talk about something interesting,' he would say pointedly, and I could never help but feel a little hurt. Quidditch _was _interesting, I would console myself.

"A biscuit?" I repeated. "I'm OK thanks."

"We've come up with an ingenious retaliation plan," Guilliano piped up from the floor. I fought extremely hard to keep my eyes from rolling. Not them as well as Lily!

"Let me guess," I said sarcastically. "It involves me wearing indecent underwear and shagging you for the rest of the school year."

He grinned lopsidedly, "Actually no. But I like that one too." How could he not.

"It involves you pretending to date Scorpius so that Nancy-boy gets jealous," Al interjected, saying it as quickly as possible, as if hoping I would miss certain details.

Like the fact he wanted me to pretend to date a _Malfoy_.

And not just any Malfoy. Scorpius Malfoy. Who was looking at me from his casual position on the sofa with a certain gleam in his eye which suggested to me that he was undressing me in his mind.

No.

Absolutely no.

"Are you kidding?" I demanded, and Al shook his head. "You want me to pretend to date _him_." I threw a disgusted look in Scorpius' direction. He raised an eyebrow and his smirk didn't even falter.

"It'll work. Lorcan hates him," Al added, as if this decided the matter.

"Are you insane? I hate him too! You honestly think people will believe we like each other after the Potions incident," I demanded.

Ah…the Potions incident. Aka. One stupid teacher's idea to pair us up, resulting in Scorpius 'accidentally' feeding me veritaserum instead of giving me our hiccoughing solution to test like he was supposed to. And then asking me to name every guy in our year that I thought was good looking. Then smirking when I finished with his name.

So I transfigured him into a ferret, thinking this was an original idea (according to my dad it isn't). Professor Longbottom found it very amusing, anyway, but it didn't stop him giving us both a weeks detention.

We were forced to forgive each other by Al who couldn't stand having to listen to each of us moan about the other, but that doesn't mean we _like_ each other.

"Well, you'll have to make it convincing. It's that or I go beat him up," Al said, knowing that I don't approve of such violence.

"Are they the only options?" I asked meekly, knowing the answer.

"Yes," Scorpius said, pouting at me. "Don't you like the idea?"

"Surprisingly no. Are you telling me you do?" I asked incredulous.

"There are compensations," he said, taxing me with a smirk.

I hope Al doesn't turn out like these two pervy idiots from hanging out with them too much.

I turned my wide-eyed gaze to Al, "Is there no one else?"

"I think we both know the answer to that," Scorpius piped up.

"Unfortunately, no," Al said. "The more people that know about it, the less likely it is to work."

"I suppose I have no choice if I want to get back at him," I said, more to myself than anyone else.

"Too right," Scorpius put in.

"Shut up, perv," I snapped back.

"Make me," he drawled, and when I turned to him again he winked slowly at me.

Sweet mother of Merlin.

Hormone alert!

"Seriously, if I do this, you have to stop with all the pervy things," I said.

"That's part of the package, I'm afraid," Guilliano said, exchanging a look with Scorpius. "So, are you going to do it?"

The million galleon question.

My thoughts flickered back to the letter: _I've found someone else, and it's not fair to you, or to her_.

My fingers balled into fists without me realising.

"Yes."

I was getting the strangest feeling that I was signing my own death sentence.

*

0

"It's New Year's Eve!" I screeched in excitement, bounding into the kitchen at the burrow, and colliding painfully with a chair, to Hugo's amusement.

"Nice one, Rosie!" he grinned.  
"Shut up," I replied in a faux-grumpy voice, rubbing my leg where I'd hit the chair.

"It first became New Year's eve about 18 hours ago, Rosie," Hugo told me, filling up a glass with water from the tap at the sink.  
"I can tell the time, you know," I said.

"If you've stopped colliding with things," Hugo said, as I hopped towards the cupboard where the biscuits were kept. "We're leaving in about two minutes."

"Are Granddad and Grandma coming?" I asked, taking a bite out of a biscuit. Hugo rolled his eyes at my demonstration of my serial-biscuit-eating habit.

"Only for a bit," he said. "By the way, we're spending the night there, because Aunt Ginny says we'll be home late and we'll wake up Grandma and Granddad."

"You could have told me that!" I gasped, running upstairs to pack an overnight bag, finishing my biscuit on the way. I picked up a bag and threw in a toothbrush, toothpaste, a change of clothes and pyjamas. I was back down in the kitchen just in time to see the green flames swallow up Hugo as he flooed to Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry's house.

"Come on, Rosie, dear," Grandma Molly said, holding out the pot of floo powder.

I arrived several minutes later in the living room of their house, and taking care not to spill soot over the carpet I climbed out of the fireplace and came face to face with Lily.  
"Are you seriously considering wearing that?" she demanded. I looked down at my Christmas jumper with 'Rose' plastered over the front and my favourite jeans.

"Yeah," I grinned. "Why? What's wrong with it?"

"It's a party Rosie, not a group-gardening session," she said, grabbing my arm and hauling me up to her room where I would probably be sleeping.

"Here, try this," she said, throwing a floaty black dress in my direction.

"But you're taller than me, so it won't fit me," I said, eyeing it nervously.

"Nah, it'll fit. This is from last year when I was only a tiny bit taller than you are now," she assured me, dashing out the room muttering that she was going to look for shoes. I pulled off my jumper and folded it neatly and put it on top of my bag. Then I took off my t-shirt and jeans and they joined the jumper in a neat pile on top of my bag in the corner of the room.

Lily was right, the dress was pretty much a perfect fit, I concluded after zipping it up carefully. It was quite low cut, and I spent a few minutes considering what I could do to make sure that it wasn't too revealing.

"Lily?" I said turning round. "Lily? Do you have a shawl or-" I stopped speaking, flabbergasted to see a smirking blonde figure leaning nonchalantly against the doorframe with his arms loosely folded. He had a look of mild approval.

"Nice dress," he grinned.

"Uh…How long have you been there?" I asked cautiously. I honestly hadn't realised that the door had been open while I changed and so I was screaming an unspoken plea to anyone up there that he hadn't been there long.

"Long enough," he smirked, and shamelessly looked me up and down.

"So you…er….you…"

"I saw you changing, yes," he drawled arrogantly. My mouth dropped open. Crap. Of all the people to see me changing!

"Why didn't you just close the door and move on?" I demanded, my face flushing uncomfortably.

"And miss the show?" he opened his arms wide and gestured to me with one eyebrow raised.

Pick your jaw up from the floor now, Rosie!

Finally anger overtook the shock of seeing him standing in the doorway. I marched over and with all the force I could muster-

SMACK.

I slapped him round the face. And, boy, did it feel good.

I clutched his hand to his face, with his mouth open wide, ready to complain. He closed his mouth and his hand dropped from his face. "I guess I kind of deserved that," he said, and actually had the audacity to grin. I watched him walk along the corridor to Al's bedroom. "It was worth it though!" He winked at me.

"Get back here you stupid ferret!" I screeched, and I could tell that my ears were glowing red just like my dad's did when he was angry. Scorpius spun slowly round on his heel and returned, adopting an extremely bored look.

"Yes, dear," he smirked.

Boy, was he going to pay.

"Say that again," I ordered, folding my arms and hopefully looking as intimidating as possible. Though, I imagine I didn't really look that intimidating at all. Especially as Scorpius towered over me at six foot two.

Yeah, he must have been quaking in his proverbial boots.

"I didn't say anything, dear," he lied, with a sneer.

I slapped him round the face again, and he scowled at me, clutching his hand to his face. "Can you stop it!" I smirked back at him, and spun around my nose in the air, but before I could take so much as a step a pale hand slipped around my wrist and pulled me back.

"Now, listen here, ginger-" I raised my hand again to slap him, but he grabbed that wrist and pulled it back down. I huffed at him. "Remember when I say this, you are the nuttiest, stupidest headcase I have ever met!"

"And you, Scorpius Malfoy," I replied, my ears still producing enough heat to heat a blast furnace, "are the most arrogant, self-centered son of a-"

"SHUT UP!" he cried down at me, and I had to fight my facial muscles to stop myself grinning. It seemed he was having similar difficulty as his current facial expression was a cross between a scowl and a grin. "Shut your fat mouth!"

"Make me."

His eyes faintly widened, and he completely lost his cool and calm composure. "Make you? Make you? I'm….I'm gonna…I'm gonna hex you into oblivion!"

"Try it and you'll be walking funny tomorrow," I smirked calmly back. "Or should I say_ funnier_."

Our eyes clashed together in a glare, which was only interrupting when we heard a roaring of laughter coming from the top of the stairs. We both stared at Guilliano who was clutching the banister with the pain of laughing at the hilarity of the situation.

"I'm off," I said, removing my wrists from Scorpius' grasp and flouncing towards Lily's bedroom. Lily, however, was standing in the doorway of her bedroom clutching a pair of extremely high heeled black shoes and grinning at me. I scowled at her.

"Please shut the door," I told her as I hurried past her into the safety of her room.

"What was that about?" she asked, giggling.

"Urgh," was all I said.

"I saw you slap him," she said, and grinned at me. "His face was priceless."

I grinned back. If only I had had a camera with me.

**Wow, I'm proud of myself – a nice quick update ******** Thanks for all the reviews for the last chapter: **_**x8xdanix6x**__**, **__**ErinFabu**__**, **__**Draora Moss**__**, **__**.tears**__**, **__**A True Dreamer**_** and any anonymous ones. Reviews are always loved!  
Let me know what you think, and if I made any mistakes etc.**

**G xoxo**


	3. Chapter Three

**Hey, I thought I would update again today, because I'd finished this chapter a few days ago, and I'm really happy because I did well in my GCSEs that I got ****the results for today =] btw. Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter. They were lovely *grins happily*. Oh, and in the last chapter I used a bit of a scene from Season 1 of Cheers, so obviously I don't own that or anything Harry Potter. **

**Also, I played about with photoshop a bit the other day and came up with what I imagine Rose and Scorpius to look like, so I thought I'd show you all: **http:// i25. tinypic. com/ 2i0q1lh. png

**Let me know what you think of the picture and the chapter in a review, please :)**

**Thanks, G xoxo**

**-CHAPTER THREE-**

"It was lovely to see you again, Rosie," Grandma Molly said, pulling me into a big hug. My parents were still away, so my Grandparents had taken Hugo and I to King's Cross to get the train home with everyone else returning from their Christmas Holidays. The train was slightly shorter at this time of year, as some people stayed at Hogwarts, and others were dropped off in Hogsmeade by their parents.

"Thanks for everything, Grandma," I replied, then when she turned to give Hugo a hug, I hugged my Grandad.

"I'll see you soon, Rosie. Your Grandma will send on anything you forgot," he said with a smile.

"Bye Grandad," I said, just as Lily grabbed my arm and practically dragged me along the platform.

"What the-"

"Lorcan's over there, sucking face with his weirdo girlfriend," Lily said by way of explanation. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach followed by disapproval of them snogging in a public place.

"I hate him," I said dramatically with a flick of my hair, and I peered behind me. Lorcan dragged himself away from the blonde bimbo entwined around him and as he caught my eye, he smiled. "He _smiled _at me!" I said in horror, turning to Lily with wide eyes.

"After his pathetic cowardly dumping?" Lily sounded disgusted. "Let me go rearrange his _face_." I took the role of pulling her arm to stop her going to punch Lorcan, even though I was dying to join her.

I can't believe he smiled at me. How could he even _think_ to so much as look at me after the way he had treated me?

"Let me at him," Lily grumbled, trying in vain to prise her arm away from mine. "I'm going to bat-bogey hex him into oblivion."

"Keep your knickers on, Potter," Guilliano said, as we passed, stepping in front of us and raising an amused eyebrow at Lily. Then something occurred to him, "Or…don't…" Oh boy. The hormones are on the rampage again. Lily looked slightly taken aback – she's never been on the receiving end of Guilliano's disturbing flirting. Mainly because Guilliano knows that if he so much as blinks in Lily's direction, her two brothers will be on him like stinksap. And he might never retain his tragic good looks if something like that happens.

"Go irritate someone else, Zabini," I said, pushing past him with Lily behind me, apparently now finding it difficult to resist the urge to punch Guilliano as well as Lorcan.

"He is such a smarmy git," she said, looking behind her.

"Don't worry, he tries it on with everyone," I reassured her, and she looked quite shocked. "Well, everyone female."

"Urgh!" she exclaimed. "He's like-"

"- a much more perverted male version of you," I finished with a joking grin. Lily furrowed her brows at me, smiling slightly. "You know, dating everyone eligible and of the opposite gender in the school." She burst out laughing. Lily's not a slut, by any stretch of the imagination. She doesn't actually _sleep_ with all the guys she takes on dates, she just seems to date a lot of them. Most evenings she seems to have a study date, and every Hogsmeade visit day she has a proper date. She's extremely pretty, which is probably why she gets so much attention from boys.

Even though she's two years below me (she's a fifth year), we get on so well because we're so close in age. I'm the youngest in my year (being an August baby) and she's the oldest in hers, so we're only just over a year apart.

"I'm slightly regretting this," I told Lily, self-consciously tugging down my skirt as we walked down the train. Understatement of the year. I was _completely _regretting it.

What was I even thinking?

I was getting a few looks from people along the corridor and, not used to the attention, I was slightly nervous.

"You look fab," Lily assured me with a wide smile. I could tell she was happy with her work, and I suppose I did look quite nice. It just felt…different. That's it. Different. My shoulder-length auburn curls were slightly less messy than usual, with the result that it looked less frizzy. My baggy school shirt was gone and Lily had gone with me to Diagon Alley to get some new ones which were much more fitted and clung to my waist. My knee-length skirt had been altered to Lily's advised length, and my school shoes had been replaced with ones with a small heel making me about an inch taller.

"Quit fretting!" Lily told me. "Now, go find Al and the idiot crew." Lily was the only other person in on the secret about mine and Scorpius' fake relationship, and she had been surprised that she hadn't come up with it before. According to her, it was a completely perfect plan.

Which made me start to doubt it sincerely.

"Ok," I grunted in reply, sounding much less than enthusiastic.

"I'll see you later. There's a new guy in my year I want to meet," she said grinning at me, and I grinned back at her. She bounced down the corridor after giving me a quick hug, and I headed towards the Head's compartment were the boy's were probably hanging out, since Scorpius was Head Boy.

I was shocked about it as well, don't worry. I mean, putting Scorpius in a role of _responsibility_ is a complete recipe for disaster. Merlin knows what was crossing the brain of our clearly somewhat loony headmistress when she came up with that ridiculous notion.

I slid open the door to the Head's compartment to find the boys involved in hushed conversation, well, until I walked in that was. They all stopped talking and looked towards the door. Guilliano wolf-whistled like the hair-brained idiot that he is.

"Shut up, doofus," I told him folding my arms, and he grinned a toothy Italian grin.

"Are you ready for this?" Al asked me, checking I didn't want to back down. But, after seeing Lorcan and his stupid new girlfriend at the station, there was no way I was not going to do anything.

I hated his stupid new girlfriend almost as much as I hated him.

"Yes," I said angrily, thinking back to Lorcan and how he had had the audacity to _smile_ at me after all he had put me through. Stupid prat.

"Excellent. Phase one, begins now," Al said, looking at his battered watch.

"Why now? There's no one here," I reminded him, gesturing to the compartment around us.

"Prefect meeting," Scorpius uttered, examining his nails with mild curiosity.

"Exactly," Al stated. "And if the prefects think you're together, then…"

"They'll tell all their friends. Well, the girls will anyway," Scorpius interrupted, earning himself a pointed roll of the eyes from Al. "Then we sit back and let the Hogwart's rumour mill work it's magic." To emphasize his point, he leant backwards and placed his hands lazily behind his head, and winked at me.

"It's guaranteed to reach the dorky ears of Lorcan by the feast," Al finished, then sent a self-satisfied smirk in my direction. "Brilliant, isn't it?"  
"Actually, a brain-dead ant could have come up with that," I told him. "But, that's besides the point, I _can_ imagine it being somewhat effective." Al grinned, and I sent him a withering look in return. "Unfortunately, you missed out an essential part of the plan."

"Uh…I did? Which bit?" Al said, his brows furrowed.

"The part where we actually get the prefects to believe that me and ferret features over here-" Scorpius gave out a snort of laughter that would have been unattractive on anyone else. Damn him and his irksome perfection. "-can actually stand each other."

Al waved a hand in the air, as if he was disregarding the matter. "That's _easy_!" he proclaimed.

"Enlighten me, then," I demanded, folding my arms and raising my eyebrows.

"I like to call it the 'soppy-look-method'," he said, looking immensely proud of himself.

"Care to elaborate?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes and sighed loudly. "Isn't it obvious, ginger? We simply-"

"_GINGER?"_ I repeated indignantly.

"Have you seen your hair?" Scorpius said with a smirk. I narrowed my eyes at him. "As I was saying, we simply give each other pathetic soppy looks, and hold hands and so on."

"And," Guilliano added, looking extremely mischevious, so much so, that I was distinctly aware that was he was about to say would make me roll my eyes and lose faith in men in their entirety. Pervy comment alert. "There may, should the aforementioned stuff not work, have to be kisses."

Despite thinking that a somewhat perverted comment was on it's way, I was more surprised about the actual statement made.

"What?" I breathed, moving my gaze to Al wordlessly begging him not to confirm this. He didn't look particularly happy, but appeared to be aware that this may be the case.

I looked over at Scorpius. He was giving me that look that boys give girls sometimes (and that he gives girls most of the time). You know, the look that implies that in his mind you are prancing around in a pair of lacy knickers. And nothing else.

Yeah, that look.

"Well," I said, regaining my composure and formulating a reply. " I'll be trying my hardest to avoid that situation at all costs." The boys exchanged a group smirk (a Slytherin tradition, I believe). "And, I'm sure Scorpius will help me avoid it."

Guilliano snorted inconceivably loud.

"After all, I'm not his type, being intelligent and thus capable of constructing a sentence consisting of more than monosyballic words," I announced in as blasé a way as possible, throwing a smirk in Scorpius' direction.

"It's not my fault I've never met an intelligent girl I'd want to date," he replied, shrugging nonchalantly.

"More like, you've never met an intelligent girl that would want to date _you,_" I replied, with a fleeting grin. Guilliano snorted loudly again just as the compartment door slid open.  
"Attractive, Zabini," came Lily's sarcastic voice from the doorway. She was sneering at Guilliano as though he was a pile of owl droppings (I'd hazard a guess that she was thinking about the comment he made earlier). He blinked at her blankly. "No, really, you'll pull the girls in droves with that."

I burst into silent giggles at the flabbergasted look Guilliano was now sporting. "I do pull the girls in droves," he spluttered back defensively.

"No offence, but I find that extremely hard to believe," she smarted back, giving a good impression of being ignorant of his 'player' status, then turned her attention to me. "The prefect meeting is in ten minutes, you and…" she eyed Scorpius with disdain, "…Malfoy have to see McGonagall beforehand."

"Let's go," Scorpius said with a one-eyebrow-raised look at me, standing up and straightening out his designer cashmere jumper. Why is it that he got looks and money?

Life is shockingly unfair.

"Whatever," I muttered, getting up and self-consciously tugging the back of my skirt down.

*

"Valentine's Day?" Scorpius exclaimed, sounding distinctly horrified, when McGonagall had left the compartment. "We have to arrange a ball for _Valentine's Day?_" He gestured towards to the substantial pile of parchment that McGonagall had put on my lap claiming that they would come in useful. Looking at the first one – an advert for everlasting toilet roll – I was finding it difficult to see how much of it would be entirely useful.

Oh, and the next one: _Self-cleaning dragon-hide gloves._ Yes, that's exactly what everyone wants at a romantic ball.

"Please tell me you know what Valentine's day is," I sighed, neatening the pile of parchment.

"Of course I do," Scorpius said, though the look in his eyes told the absolute opposite. My jaw dropped open in amused shock. _He didn't know what Valentine's day was._

Who could be that ignorant? Just because he's the product of generations of pure-blood breeding doesn't give him an excuse to be utterly nonplussed by a common muggle holiday. Where has he been living? A magically protected cardboard box?

"You don't know what Valentine's day is?" I asked, incredulous averting my attention from another completely unrelated-to-balls advert on the pile on my lap.

"Do I look like I've ever taken a Muggle Studies class?" he said, gesturing to his decidedly Slytherin appearance – complete with green and silver tie, and determinedly conceited look in his eyes. The honest answer is: No. No, he does _not_ look like someone who would go within a twenty foot radius of a Muggle Studies classroom. Because he looks 100% Slytherin.

"You don't have to go to a lesson to know something simple as what Valentine's day is," I told him. "It's general knowledge."

He scowled, "Please remember, I spend my summers locked in a stupid manor, listening to lectures from my grandfather, not frolicking around the streets of Muggle London absorbing pointless information. So, are you going to tell me what it is?"

I raised my eyebrow before continuing. "It's a muggle holiday to celebrate love. Basically, you give cards to people you fancy."

Scorpius snorted loudly and burst into laughter. I furrowed my brows, confused as to why this was so hilarious. "Come on, Weasley! I'm not falling for that crap – I mean, a holiday to celebrate _love_!"

"You don't believe me? Have none of your _girlfriends_-" I emphasized the word to show that I thought his definition of the word was slightly warped. "-ever given you a card saying they love you?"

He stopped grinning. "Yeah, I seem to get a lot in February, which is weird because my birthday's in – "

"Point proven," I interjected, returning to flicking through the pile of parchment with a satisfied grin.

" – October," he looked thoughtful for a moment. "That would explain a lot."

I rolled my eyes as he grinned like some five year old that had just tied his shoelace for the first time.

"Bugger," he said, peering behind my shoulder. I began to twist my head around but he grabbed one of my hands bringing my attention back to him. "One of the prefects is waiting outside.

"Ok, that's lovely," I said sarcastically. I tried to pull my hand out of his grip in vain. He was clutching it tightly. "Can – you – get – off – " He didn't loosen his grasp.

"Look at me, Ravendork," he ordered, so I looked up under heavy-lidded eyes giving him a look of contempt.

I huffed. "Ravendork? Puh-lease! What is it with you and your pathetic insu – "

"I said, there's a prefect standing outside the door," he said, sounding irritated that his point apparently wasn't getting across. Except it _was_. I completely comprehended that a prefect was standing outside the door. _He_might need someone to repeat something ten times before it penetrates his abnormally thick skull, but I, however, got it the first time.

"I got that, thanks," I told him. "But, it's a _prefect_ not a ruddy _dementor,_ so do you think you could perhaps stop cutting the blood supply off to my fingers?" I said mockingly in a sickeningly sweet voice.

"I said," he repeated, gritting his teeth and _still_ not letting go of my hand. I could barely feel my fingers any more. "There's a – "

"Yes, I KNOW!" I screeched back. "There's a PREFECT!" Scorpius and I locked eyes, and with a raise of his eyebrows and a significant nod of his head I realised what he was trying to say. A prefect outside, meant we had to start acting all lovey-dovey and pathetic. Woop-de-doo.

"Oh…there's a _prefect _outside," I said grinning, and in an understanding voice.

"What do we do?" he demanded, the grip around my wrist getting more painful than ever.

"Uh…hug?" I suggested.

"Yeah," he said thoughtfully. "Shuffle over, and I'll put my arm around you."

I crinkled my nose. "Eww, no!"

"Rosie…" he said threateningly, frowning at me.

"Sorry," I grinned. "Involuntary reaction." He rolled his eyes as I scooted over to next to where he was sitting and he put a lean arm around my shoulders just in time for the compartment door to slide open and several prefects to traipse in looking miserable that they were back at school after the holidays.

I stood up, taking care not to vomit whilst I gave Scorpius a soppy look and addressed the few prefects that had arrived. "Is this everyone?"

One of the girls nodded, and a fifth year Gryffindor spoke up, "Everyone else is at school."  
"Great," I said, the sarcasm in my tone obvious. "Well, you'll have to pass the message on that we're staying with the same patrol partners."

"Lucky me," Scorpius purred, from next to me, rubbing my lower back. I felt my cheeks flush, and several of the girls sat up straighter with their highly tuned gossip sensors picking up everything going on all of a sudden.

"Yes, well," I stammered. "Anyway, we're also having a Valentine's ball and it would be great if some of you could help with the organization, so if any of you want to help you should come and see me or…" I took the time to look at Scorpius and shut my eyelids with a deep sigh when he stared back, licking his lips in a deeply disturbing manner. "…or…" The gossiping fifth year prefect girls giggled, mistaking my reluctance to say his name whilst the owner of the offending name was sitting there trying to look seductive, for love. His attempts failed due to the fact that I generally want to vomit when I see his features anyway – I have no doubt, that if his techniques were applied on another girl they would immediately succumb to his charm. "Or Scorpius."

"There was no need to get tongue-tied," he informed me under his breath, as the prefects left the compartment (the girls looking just about ready to roast me alive with jealousy, at the same time as being delighted about new gossip). "I know I'm amazing, but better girls than you have been speechless around me, so don't let it get you down."  
I picked up my schoolbag and shoved him out of the way taking care to swing it into his groin area. I will have to sterilize that bag later, but it was worth it to hear the elaborate collection of swear words that spilled from his mouth when my aim was spot on.

Bingo.


	4. Chapter Four

**I know, I know. I haven't updated in like a month! And I am so so sooooo sorry :S But here it is, the long-awaited next chapter. It's not as long as the other ones but I hope you like it anyway!**

**-----------**

**-CHAPTER FOUR-**

Girls can sometimes be extremely odd creatures. Being one of the least girly girls I am acquainted with, I can safely say this. My proof you might ask?

Well, firstly, in the space of less than a few hours I have gone from a Ravenclaw bookworm hardly noticed by anyone at all to one of the most envied girls in all of Hogwarts. Not for my looks, of course. Merlin, no!

A seventh-year girl I swear to God has never even acknowledged my extistence before, granted me with a death stare that would hardly be deserved by Voldemort himself. And the reason for this envy (or in random-seventh-year's case – fury) is purely because I happened to stroll seemingly serenely into the Great Hall for dinner, my hand intertwined with none other than King of the Egos, more widely known as Scorpius Malfoy. Or Slytherin Sex God. But I'd rather not delve deeply into _that_ state of affairs.

At least the egotistic cad on my right happened to find the situation amusing. He took a perverse delight in watching the faces of his former conquests form carious facial expression ranging from pure unadulterated horror, to a look of jealously mingled with disbelief. However, you certainly don't need to be a skilled Legilimens to know the exact sentiment that was flitting across their otherwise empty minds.

_What the hell is Rose Weasley doing with Scorpius Malfoy? _Cue dreamy look/swoon when they think of his name.

As we passed the Gryffindor table Abigail Greene (resident cheap girl) stood up with a flick of her long and blatantly fake hair and strutted over to us, her hips swaying in a weirdly unattractive manner, and her bosom thrust out. She placed on hand on her hip – perhaps hoping that this posture was alluring. For future reference, it is definitely _not_ – and coughed haughtily.

"Scorpy, dahling!" she drawled in the kind of squeaky voice you'd expect to hear from a gender-confused rodent and not a teenage girl attempting to be seductive. Scorpius, I noted, with bizarre relief, clenched his hand slightly in mine when addressed thus and clicked his tongue impatiently. Abigail drew a long scratchy breath and allowed her gaze to fall on me for a split-second. Her already somewhat unpleasant feautyres contorted into what I imagine was an expression of disgust. It can be quite hard to tell, what with all the make up that she insists on plastering her face with.

She placed her scrawny hand on Scorpius' chest and, without bothering to lower her tone so that I would be saved the displeasure of her opinion and her ratty voice, said, "What are you doing with _her_?"

Scorpius, to his credit, acted very well at this point. I was beginning to think that he had forgotten the fact that we were supposed to convincing everyone that we were dating, with his allowing Abigail to stroke his cashmere jumper. With one swift motion he knocked Abigail's hand off him and with the other hand, wound his arm round my back so I could just see the tips of his pale fingers curled delicately around my waist. It was at that moment, with my side pressed up against his so I could feel the contours of his long lean frame, that I felt an unfamiliar lurch in my stomach that I could certainly not credit to hunger, especially since my heart had started beating unnaturally rapidly. A quick heart rate is generally not a symptom of hunger – not in my world anyway.

That was not normal, if it was what I thought it was. I was becoming increasingly aware of the hand snaked around my waist. It was so casually placed there. As if he didn't think it would affect me in the slightest. What am I saying? It _shouldn't _have affected me.

"That's my business," Scorpius said, with a demure raise of his right eyebrow. An action on his part, which caused a flow of blood to my cheeks, turning them the unmistakeable Weasley red of embarrassment.

Thankfully he didn't notice the flush in my cheeks, and with a slight tightening of that hand around my waist – my breath hitched at that moment, another worrying sign – we carried on our unaffected walk to the Slytherin table. When we reached the table, the hand around my waist withdrew and immediately my heart slowed to normal. Though my side now felt unnaturally cold. I sat down, taking care not to catch anyone's eye, for fear that I might blush. Once I had recovered and food was just beginning to appear on the table, I peered around to cast a look at the Ravenclaw table. My vision immediately latched onto Lorcan staring in my direction, his mouth wide open. However, as soon as he realised I'd seen him, and before I could draw any conclusions from his gazing, he coughed, blushed and returned his attention to his dinner, taking a suspiciously long time to serve his potatoes.

"Lorcan was so obviously staring at you," Al announced to the otherwise silent table. "He's so unobvious, it almost makes me want to laugh." Guilliano chuckled slightly less obnoxiously than usual, and I noticed that his attention was far from completely absorbed by Al. In fact he was gazing at some point behind my left shoulder intently, and as I peeked round to follow his faze, the only thing that caught my eye that must be catching his was the sight of Lily flirting outrageously with the new guy in her year – a handsome curly haired boy.

How utterly…bizarre.

Scorpius also didn't seem to be paying much attention to Al. He was moodily moving food around his plate with his fork, his chin resting on one supporting pale hand.

Al hardly seemed to notice that his friends attentions were otherwise occupied and proceeded to engage us all in an extremely dull conversation about what foods were best for maintaining a quidditch figure.

"It's ridiculous," he declared to us through a mouthful of spaghetti. I gave him a withering look which he ignored. "That Rosie manages not to be fat when she lives off a diet purely consisting of biscuits."

"Biscuits aren't that fattening if you exercise as well," I replied defensively. "They don't contain that much fat do they?"

"Oh, no. Of course not," Al answered back, with a Slytherin inspired smirk and a sarcastic tone. Guilliano took the time from his frequent looks at the Gryffindor table to snort approvingly at Al's sarcasm. "Oh shit," Al suddenly said, leaning across the table to disguise his surprised tone. Scorpius who hadn't spoken so far all meal, looked up from pushing his peas around his plate.

"What is it?"

"Lorcan's coming this way," he whispered back. He tried to subtly convey the warning again to us through the use of wide-eyed expressions and significant nods in the direction of the Ravenclaw table. Sure enough, several seconds later, a gloppy blonde head dropped in the seat next to Al and greeted him in a friendly manner (as family friends, Al and Lorcan do actually know each other, but owing to the fact that Al likes to preserve his social status and Lorcan isn't commonly considered…well…cool, they rarely talk in school).

"How's it going Al?" Lorcan asked awkwardly. Al looked as though he was resisting the urge to fling a plate of pudding into Lorcan's face. I missed Al's no doubt polite (he has manners) reply because for some reason, Scorpius chose that inopportune moment to 'accidentally' place his slender hand on my leg.

Now, the stomach twisting that I'd felt earlier on was nothing compared to the gut-churning reaction that was currently going on in my stomach. I felt my cheeks redden slightly as my gaze dropped to my plate and then up to Scorpius' pale smirking aristocratic face.

Of course. He would find the situation amusing, wouldn't he?

I licked my suddenly dry mouth so that I could formulate a resposed, "Errr." Well, yes. That was the ever-so-eloquent reply I managed to achieve. Scorpius had inched higher up my leg and quite frankly, it distracts one's train of thought. Why couldn't I just slap him away? There was something in his slightly amused smirk that hypnotised me and stopped me from being able to think properly at all. Our eyes locked, but as soon as Scorpius raised a conceited eyebrow, the spell was broken and I was once again capable of coherent speech. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Malfoy," I whispered in what I considered to be a highly threatening manner. "Not unless you want me to hex your manhood off."

"I'd like to see you try, troll features," he whispered back in my ear, and to those who perhaps might not have known what we were discussing, it may have appeared a tad seductive. At least, that's what Al told me later, and judging by the expression that Lorcan was currently sporting – that was the impression he had gained as well.

"Shut it ferret-face," I replied in an undertone, before jumping up as calmly and serenely as I could manage at the time, with my heart beating unnaturally fast and all. As I strolled away, after granting Scorpius a patronizing smirk, I heard Albus say loudly to him, clearly forgetting that Lorcan was sitting next to him, "You were feeling her up under the table weren't you?"

I couldn't help myself. I automatically clasped a hand to my mouth to stop myself from laughing and looked backwards to catch Lorcan looking between Scorpius and myself in shock and disbelief.

"So what if I was. If she enjoyed it, it's not a problem, right?" was Scorpius' arrogant reply. And I pray to God that that was purely acting to make Lorcan die with jealousy, because that is the last thing I need Al passing on to my father.

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	5. Chapter Five

**-CHAPTER FIVE-**

"He is so unbelievably jealous, it is not even funny any more!"

I spun around on my heel after leaving the Hall to find myself facing my darling cousin who came up with this ridiculous plan in the first place. A plan that a certain Malfoy was taking it upon himself to manipulate and bloody _feel me up_ under the dinner table.

_In front of my ex-boyfriend._

I knew this whole plan was entirely a means to get back at him, but there was something niggling in the back of my mind saying that Scorpius was unnecessarily taken by the idea. And to an extent that was quite worrying to be honest.

Lily hooked her arm in mine practically skipping as she did so. "What's even better, is that the new boy, you know him, right?"

"I'm guessing he's the curly haired one you were flirting with all dinner?" I deducted.

"Yes, him. Well, he's _asked me out_!" Lily grinned at me, and made an odd satisfied screeching sound. "It's brilliant isn't it!" She was excessively excited about this date for some reason. Now, don't get me wrong, she does in fact like all the guys she dates, but _never_ has she been so excited about going out with someone than she is for this guy, whoever he is.

I sighed slightly. "That's great, Lily."

"I know, right," she said, excitedly. "Anyway, back on the topic of you and that dork – I mean, Lorcan…why exactly, when you left the room, was he looking as though he wanted to take you to a deserted corridor and ta-"

I groaned, and planted both hands firmly over my ears. "Please, don't finish that sentence! You are extraordinarily sick-minded, Lily Potter!"

"Oh, come on, you should've seen his face, he was practically drooling. Well, drooling and looking insanely jealous about something – I'm guessing our plan is working brilliantly," Lily smiled, almost jumping up and down on the spot.

"Well, if you really to know –" Lily threw me a looking stating that she _did_ really want to know. "Basically, Malfoy kind of…well…he had his hand on my leg at the table…"

Lily produced a low-whistle and gave me a half-surprised half-approving look, "Rose Weasley is no longer innocent!"  
"Shut up, it wasn't like that," I snapped back in reply. When, in fact, thinking about it, it was actually like that. Unless Scorpius was faking it, but then if he was as revolted by me as he normally states, then surely he wouldn't want to go near me.

Stop thinking, Rose. It's obvious it was nothing.

"It was just...nothing," I said after a short pause. The only thing was, if it was nothing, then why did it elicit such a reaction from me? Surely, if it was nothing I'd _feel_ nothing too? I wouldn't have some sort of merry-go-round in my stomach, with my heart pounding in my ears.

"Rose, honey, if a guy is taking the time to remove his attention from food and feel you up in front of your cousin aka. Your best friend, and your ex, thereby risking his pretty face being smashed up by either of their fists, you can safely assume that it is not _nothing_," Lily told me, with a roll of her eyes.

"I'm just saying it was probably nothing to him."

Lily's eyebrows shot up her forehead. "Are you implying that it wasn't nothing to _you_?" she said, sounding thoroughly surprised, but with the hint of a smirk playing at her lips.

"N-no.." I stammered, in a pretty unconvincing manner. I must be the least subtle person alive. I'm not kidding. Even _Albus_ could see through that blatant lie, and that is saying something because he is probably the least perceptive person alive. Lily grinned. Damn her and her conniving ways of getting things out of me! "Oh shut up and stop smirking!" She continued to smirk at me. "Whatever, I'm going to bed, we have lessons tomorrow and then that stupid match on Saturday."

I gave her a fleeting hug and then jumped up the stairs two at a time.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you called Quidditch stupid," she called back, and I stopped on my position half way up the stairs to throw her an annoyed look. "But then again," she added, still smirking incessantly. "I'd never thought I'd see the day when you'd enjoy Scorpius Malfoy feeling you up under the table."

"Shut up Potter! I have the authority to give you detention!" I smarted back, trying to sound threatening.

"Oh, you have the _means_ Weasley, but you don't have the _guts_."

That is not Lily Potter's voice. In fact, that is not a female voice at all. That is the voice of…

"Malfoy?" Lily managed to choke out, then she quickly recovered herself. "Fancy seeing you here! And…Albie, my darling brother, looking as annoyingly smarmy as usual." Oh great. So Al heard her little anecdote as well. Great. Just what I need. But, to be honest, what would make it even worse, would be if the other idiot knew. "And Zabini? Please remove that facial expression from your collection, it makes you look like a paedophile." It seems I spoke too soon.

Bugger.

"I told you she enjoyed it, Al," Malfoy said loudly, his eyes never leaving me, so I gathered he didn't notice Lorcan leaving hall just behind. Is it coincidence that these things always happen to me? "I'll see you in the Head's dorms in a bit, Rosie-posie."

Oh.

My.

God.

Did he honestly just _wink_ at me after saying that?! This was so unbearably embarrassing that my face turned the traditional Weasley red. Trust me to inherit all the bad genes from my parents. Before I felt the need to insult him or something similar, I forced myself to smile in a way that wasn't repulsed and then walked as quickly as possible away.

* * *

_*(Saturday)*_

"Good luck for your match today!" I heard Lorcan's tone wafting to my ears from several places down on my left. His voice was almost completely concealed by the excited screeches of the various female members of my family, but after 8 months of dating, I had grown used to identifying his voice amongst Lily's squeals. Before I could so much as open my mouth to say anything, I received a sharp blow to the back of my head, and Lily bent down and whispered in my ear.

"Be cool!" she muttered urgently, giving me a significant look. I peered to my left so that I caught Lorcan's eye and gave him a tiny smile that would probably not even have been noticeable with a magnifying glass, then I quickly looked away. "Brilliant, Rosie! He's staring at you in shock that you rejected him now! This is brilliant!" Lily whispered in my ear, giving me a hug.

"Depends what you think brilliant is," I replied, tucking into a slice of toast with a shocking amount of jam on the top. I need a lot of energy for big games, and seeing as today I was playing against Slytherin, I was going to need more energy than normal. As if bloody Scorpius Malfoy wasn't perfect enough – you know, perfect hair, perfect grades – he also just had to be Seeker on the Slytherin team. The exact position that I played on the Ravenclaw team, as luck would have it. And to top it off, being the irksome perfection that he is, he is also unnervingly good at his role on the Quidditch team with apparently little effort.

Though the past few games over the years between Ravenclaw and Slytherin resulted in a wounded ego on his part after I snatched the snitch from under his nose three years in a row.

I could tell from the slightly sneering frown he was throwing my direction from the Slytherin table that he was remembering my habit of continually beating him as well. I bounced out of my chair and sauntered over to their table, taking care to conceal my jittering nerves under a grin of confidence.

"Excited for the match, Malfoy," I asked, oozing satisfaction at his dejected features and sitting opposite him next to Al. He threw me a disgusted look. "I suppose you're remembering my win from last year." I grinned widely at him, grabbing an apple from the bowl in front of me.

He grimaced. "I try not to remember that occasion as far as possible," he grumbled.

"What about the year before?" I asked, taking a bite of apple to stop myself from laughing out loud at the downright worried expression that had currently crept its way onto his face where it looked distinctly out of place. After all, he was the epitome of all things cool and collected.

"I'm trying to forget that one too," he added with a distinct air of being thoroughly miserable.

"How about – "

"You've made your point," he snapped back. "Anyway, if we're talking about having one over on the other," he added after a second, that damnable smirk clawing it's way onto his face yet again. "Then, perhaps I ought to mention the fact that _you_," he pointed a fork covered in baked bean juice at me, "like me." He grinned smugly at me.

"I do _not _like you," I smarted back. "Lily interpreted the situation incorrectly, is all."

Both Scorpius and Al threw me looks suggesting that they distinctly disagreed with this fact. " Is that so?" Al sniggered into his cereal. He and Scorpius exchanged an amused look.

"Regardless of any attraction my stupid body feels for you, my mind is not that stupid," I interrupted their sniggers, though unfortunately, for me, this caused Al to start laughing even more obviously.

"Is that so?" Scorpius said, echoing what Al had said seconds earlier.

I rolled my eyes, trying to distract myself from thinking about the fact that my face was in fact turning red. Again. "It is so annoying when you say that, you know."

Scorpius and Al exchanged another look. "Is that so?" they said in unison and then collapsed into laughter. I decided at that point to leave them to their immature primitive behaviour and walk with Lily to the Quidditch pitch.

**

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**I haven't updated in sooooo long! And I am soo sorry, but thank you for the reviews for the last chapter, even if it is a little late. I got nearly 20 reviews, which is absolutely amazing, so I hope you like this chapter as much!**

**I really hope to update soon (like, within the next week) but I've got a lot on at the moment, so I don't know how well that will work out :S**

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	6. Chapter Six

**-CHAPTER SIX-**

"AND SLYTHERIN ARE AHEAD BY 100 AFTER ANOTHER BRILLIANT GOAL BY ALBUS POTTER – I WOULDN'T EXPECT ANY LESS FROM A BOY WHOSE MOTHER PLAYED FOR THE HOLYHEAD HARPIES!" The smooth voice of Kyle Jordan broke the freezing January air as I circled the pitch high above, with the wind buffeting my air, and my fingers practically falling off they were so bloody cold.

So far, after playing for about 30 minutes, I was already so cold I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to hold on to my broom any longer, and then I would fall about 60 feet onto a freezing cold icy pitch. Ouch.

One hundred. That is currently how many flaming points we are losing by, and we are only thirty minutes into the bloody game. In fact, if I didn't catch that blasted snitch within the next, oh, twenty minutes or so, then we would most definitely lose the match. And I cannot lose this match.

Not when weeks of constant mocking from Al, Scorpius and Guilliano rides on it. I _cannot _lose. Our team would lose any hope of every even _touching_ the Quidditch cup.

"AND SLYTHERIN SCORE AGAIN!" came Kyle Jordan's voice from the podium. You have got to be kidding me. Again! Is there no end to their incessant scoring! I bet it is Al who is scoring all these goals.

I continued to circle about the pitch, getting steadily more frustrated and Malfoy certainly wasn't helping matters. Every time his team had scored so far, he had flown over to me and made some kind of gloating remark about the Slytherin team's general amazingness, or how loserish the Ravenclaws were. Which, after the first couple of times you can imagine, got pretty annoying, so as he flew towards me after the Slytherin's most recent goal I had the urge to punch him in the face. Or push him off his broom.

"Having fun embracing your failure?" he smirked at me, looking a lot more confident than he was earlier on at the breakfast table. He raised his eyebrows as I gritted my teeth. I must not dive bomb him.

Ignore the incredibly frustrating blonde idiot. Ignore.

"At this rate," he continues, drawling on pompously as though he is under the impression I am clinging to every word he says, "even if you catch the snitch, which you won't, you'll still lose. Now _that_ takes some doing." He took both hands of his broom as he said this, so he was hovering in mid air with his arms loosely folded, giving the appearance that he was the epitome of calm. I sniffed derisively. Because, let's face it, what is more annoying than someone being completely relaxed about something that you yourself are worked up about.

Exactly. Nothing.

Sod Lily's stupid revenge plan – I am actually halfway to sticking his precious Nimbus 4000 up his arrogant pompous –

Hold on. Do you think he's realised that there is a tiny golden ball with minute wings fluttering just above his head?

"But, because I'm just generally nice, I'll invite you to the Slytherin after-party. You'll need cheering up after we thrash you," he laughed arrogantly at his own apparent wit.

Evidently he has _not_ noticed the snitch less than 5cm from his oh-so-precious hair. My heart was pumping rapidly somewhere around my ears, as the adrenalin kicked in and I shot forward, covering the ten feet between us in mere seconds.

"What the _hell,_ Rose?!" Scorpius screeched, as he swerved his broom out the way so that I didn't collide with his head. But his confusion turned to a mingled look of shock and irritation when he noticed the small feathery wings fluttering on either side of my clenched fist. Oh yes, I had caught the snitch! I held it up to him and smirked.

"Al is going to fucking kill me," he managed to splutter out, as the crowd finally realised that I had caught the snitch and started cheering loudly – well, everyone except for the Slytherins of course. No doubt they had assumed this game was in the bag for them.

"AND RAVENCLAW WIN 160 TO 120! ROSE WEASLEY HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH – NO DOUBT MALFOY WILL BE ANNOYED ABOUT LOSING TO A GIRL!! HA HA!"

"Mr Jordan! No direct attacks on the players!"

"Sorry, Professor."

Yes! I punched the air, ecstatic. I had actually got one over on Scorpius and Al! Result! I flew back down to the ground with the rest of my team, where we congratulated the Slytherins on a good game and they half-heartedly reciprocated.

"Oi! Rose!" Al called to me as the teams divided to go to the showers, and the stands started to empty. I spun around in the mud to see Al gesturing dejectedly to me. Quickly I jogged over, and he clapped me on the back in a brotherly fashion. "Good game. Even if you _did_ win by luck." He grinned.  
"Oh, shut up. We won fair and square!" I grinned back.

"Whatever," he replied, twiddling his broom around in his hand. "Will you come to the Slytherin tent when you're done? I want to walk back to the castle with you – Scorp is sulking."

I couldn't help snorting. "Scorp?" What a ridiculous nickname!

"Yes, Scorp…" Al said, giving me an odd look as though he didn't understand why I was commenting on it. "So, can I walk back with you?"

"No," I said sarcastically," I only walk back with family."

"Oh, ha ha," Al said in a dry tone, heading off to the Slytherin tent.

*  
"Your saviour has arrived!" I announced to the seemingly empty Slytherin dressing room. Al better not have left without me, otherwise this situation will be fairly awkward if one of those huge body-guard-like Slytherin beaters finds me here.

"Is that you, Rose?" I heard Al's voice from around the corner.

"Yes, and are you dressed? Because I don't want to walk in on you changing, like _some_ people we know," I said loudly, slamming my eyes shut.

"It's safe." I cracked my eyes open and Al was in front of me winding a scarf around his neck. "And who is it that watches people changing?"

I gave him a 'look'. "I'll give you a clue. He's tall, blonde, and oddly perverted for a 17 year old boy."

Al grinned. "He is, isn't he?"

"_What? Perverted_? I am NOT!" Scorpius – sorry, _Scorp_ – exclaimed, rounding the corner, still completely dressed in his muddy Quidditch attire. He leant his broom up against the wall as Al gave him a disapproving look.  
"Get dressed, you fool," Al told him, chucking him a towel that hit him expertly in the face. Scorpius gave me a significant look, and judging by the nudges of his head towards the door, I would imagine it was a look telling me to get out…or else.

Al picked up on his indiscreet head nodding, "She's your girlfriend, mate," Scorpius rolled his eyes, "and _I_ am straight, so get dressed, or you're stuck at Malfoy Mnor all summer on your own. I will refuse to visit you."

Scorpius rolled his eyes obviously. "Bribery is illegal, you know," he stated, hooking his fingers under the bottom of his Quidditch shirt and lifting it slightly. I quickly averted my eyes and pretended to be extremely interested in one of the posters on the wall which said: _SLYTHERINS ALWAYS WIN. WE ARE NOT LOSERS. FIGHT!_

How…patriotic.

"I'd say it was more blackmail," Al corrected him thoughtfully.

Do not look away from the poster, I told myself firmly. Look, the poster is very nice…it has lots of green on it, and pretty silver writing that is telling Slytherins in no uncertain terms to basically kill their rivals. How delightful. Keep your eyes focused on the _poster_.

"What's so fascinating about that poster?" Al asked, peering round me to look at the aforementioned poster in confusion.

I regret to say that the most intelligent to pop into my brain at that point was: "Um."

"Isn't it obvious?" Scorpius inputted, looking as though Professor McGonagall had just announced that Ravenclaw had just been forced to forfeit the match, so Slytherin had won by default. Al shook his head in reply to Scorpius' outburst. "She's looking at that poster to prevent herself from seeing my heavenly abs."

"If your abs were so _heavenly_ as you so delicately phrased it, then wouldn't I _want_ to look at them, and not at some dumb poster?" I inquired, making the fatal mistake of looking round at him.

"Maybe your worried that, Merlin-forbid, you find someone who is not a self-confessed bookworm attractive," he snapped, rubbing his hair with the towel to…well, actually I'm not sure what he was trying to achieve. Maybe that's how you get the effortless windswept look – you rub your head with a towel so your hair goes static.

I narrowed my eyes at him in irritation. "I've found people attractive who aren't bookworms, I'll have you know."

Don't look below his neck. Do _not_ even glance below his neck.

"Really? _Really_? Or is that just a lie to make me consider the impossibilities of that statement and therefore not realise that you are staring at me," Scorpius said, raising an eyebrow and smirking simultaneously.

I snorted unattractively. "I am _not_ staring at you!" Though I think he could tell I was lying as I could feel the blood rushing to my face. He turned back to his pile of clothes and started looking for a shirt.

For once the big-headed prat was right. His abs were heavenly.

Give me strength! One look of his toned upper arms and chest and I've managed to get a full-blown crush!

I honestly thought I was a bit deeper than that.

Actually, no. Stop, right there. I cannot have a crush. I mean, so what if he is insanely gorgeous and I am fair tempted to faint right now on this disgustingly muddy floor? He's still an arrogant arse who regularly has about a zillion girlfriends _at the same time_. And he's still annoying. And pompous. And shallow. And…

Oh, who am I kidding? I like him. Bugger. This calls for drastic action. I'll have to find Lily the second I get back to the castle and she better know what to do about this.

"Well, if you two have stopped flirting…" Al said, with a dramatic pause, as he looked between the two of us with raised eyebrows. Scorpius continued ruffling through his clothes but I didn't fail to notice the slight reddening of his cheeks.

"We are NOT flirting!" I snapped, giving Scorpius a sickened look. He shrugged and started laughing. AAARGGHH! "Albus Potter, we are leaving _now_!" I twisted around, and grabbing Al's arm, I tried to pull him towards the exit, but him being significantly stronger than I am, I just ended up nearly falling over when he remained glued to the spot.

"Aren't we going to wait for your _lovvveerrr…_" Al laughed, but his smile faltered when he saw the I-will-owl-your-mother-right-now-if-you-utter-another-word look on my face. "I guess not," he added awkwardly.

"It's OK, I'm ready," Scorpius said, to my immense frustration. And let me just tell you, he was _not _ready. The boy wasn't even decently dressed and it was a freezing January day outside! He was wearing a pair of jeans and a shoe. _One shoe_.

"You're not going to bother dressing then?" I snapped sarcastically. "Too complicated for your dim-witted mind, is it?"

"No," he said, displaying a look on his face that I just knew meant he was thinking of something incredibly witty to say to me. Joy of joys. "I just thought I'd be nice, I mean some of you are clearly enjoying the view, and I wouldn't want to let you down, now, would I?" he sniggered. I clicked my tongue in fury. "You can call it payback for the other day when I walked in on you in the shower." He strode past me as Al burst into laughter and I stood there spluttering in shock.

"You did WHAT?!" I screeched, almost hysterical.

"I was kidding! Merlin, it is so easy to wind you up!" he grinned, and high-fived Al.

"Nice one, Scorp!"

Eurgh. That is so not funny. So incredibly not funny.

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**Hey guys! Happy new year to you all! I know I've been a bit delayed, but I had written out this chapter and then I couldn't get access to the internet for days thanks to our yearly holiday to the middle of nowhere :)**

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	7. Chapter Seven

**-CHAPTER SEVEN-**

I found Lily in a place where I never thought I would _ever_ find her. The library. I know, it's almost enough to make you slap a hand to your forehead in utter shock – the fact that Lily Potter was in the library.

And not just that…she was _working_. She was hunched over an enormous volume, a slight frown on her forehead, clearly engrossed in whatever she was reading about. I dread to think what the world has come to if Lily Potter is spending her Saturday afternoon in the library _working_.

"Lily," I said relieved, slumping down in the chair next to her and casting a wary eye over the large pile of books that had accumulated on the table. She grunted in reply, but didn't look up. "Lily Potter," I demanded mock-angrily. "Are you going to ignore me?"

Her eyes lingered on the page just a few seconds longer and then, finally, she flicked her gaze up to my dishevelled form and bird's nest hair.

"Lily, are you actually…um…_working_?"

She peered down at her books and at the quill in her hand which she promptly dropped onto her piece of parchment before turning herself to face me. "I have no idea how you do it all the time, Rosie. I mean, it's just so _boring!_" I gave her a faux shocked look. "My OWLs are coming up, and the stupid teachers have predicted me straight P's. So, I thought I better put some work in, before my mum turns up and gets Professor Hagrid to feed me to a flobberworm or something."

My eyes widened slightly. I had missed completely everything after she had said _straight P's_. "You're predicted _straight P's_??!!? Do you even know what P stands for?"

She hesitated, and then smiled devilishly. "No, but apparently it's not 'Pass'. And failing all my OWLs certainly won't look good when I try to find work." I can't believe someone of my own flesh and blood was predicted _all P's_. She better be thanking the gods that she doesn't have Hermione Granger for a mother.

"Oh, shall I leave you to it then?" I asked, and Lily looked at me as though I was suggesting she go for a naked swim in the Lake. "Or I could tutor you?"

"No! I'm so bored, it's insane! I was thinking of giving up about now anyway, I don't think I can do any more work without my brain exploding," she replied, slamming the enormous book in front of her shut with relish. "You clearly have something you want to tell me…so spit it out." She peered over at me, trying to look nonchalant about me confiding in her, but I knew her ears were on high alert to picking up gossip.

"Well…" I hesitated, unsure of how to broach the subject.

"Well, what?" she demanded in an urgent whisper, dropping the act of being disinterested.

I eyed her in annoyance. "_Well_," I repeated, placing a delicate emphasis on the word. "Earlier I was in the Slytherin changing room after the game…"

Lily held up her hand, indicating for me to stop talking right away. "Hold on. You were in the _Slytherin changing room?_" I nodded, and she seemed taken aback by my offhand manner. "Why, exactly?"

"Oh, because me and Al were waiting for Scorpius to get changed, and he was taking ages…" Lily interrupted me with a wave of her hand again, and I sighed and rolled my eyes. At this rate I wouldn't be able to discuss these _very important_ matters with her until after I'd graduated.

"Let me get this straight… _You_, Rose Weasley, were in a changing room where _Scorpius Malfoy_ was in the process of changing?" I nodded. Lily's face suddenly turned to one with a glittering smile, and a sneaky glint in her eye. "And, I imagine, that at some point he was not wearing a shirt." She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. She is so….teenage girl-ish.

"That's the problem here!" I exclaimed loudly, and a first year picking a book from a high shelf looked over at me in a slightly creeped out fashion, and promptly dropped the book they had just got out onto the floor. I gave him an apologetic look, and dropped my voice to a low whisper. "This is what I came to talk to you about."

"You think it's a problem that you saw Scorpius without a shirt?" Lily seemed confused.

I nodded, casting a fervent look around us to make sure that no sneaky little Slytherin was listening in on our conversation. "Of course it's a problem! It's an ungodly predicament! Can't you see why?"

She looked just about ready to slap me for being dense (and overly dramatic) at that moment. "No! He is_ fine_! I wouldn't mind seeing him without his shirt on!"  
"Well, we all know _you_ wouldn't mind," I said quickly, as Lily shook her head at the truth of the statement and grinned. "But, the problem is that I _do _mind, because…well…" How exactly do I say this? You know, without making Lily think I have officially lost all of my marbles.

A look of dawning realisation overcame Lily's face. "Ah! You found him attractive, didn't you? And now you're sickened with yourself because you made a vow when he played that trick on you in potions that you would hate him for all eternity!" She has managed to sum up every thought going through my head in a single sentence. That truly shows how well she knows me.

My only issue with her knowing this is _does she have to look so bloody pleased about it_?

"Stop grinning like your birthday's come early, this is serious business," I told her, then I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Anyway, it's not like I never knew that he was attractive…I just have never been attracted to him _myself_. And as you said, he is an arrogant pompous little arse…"

"I never said that!" She looked at me, evidently scandalized by the thought of a bad word being said about Scorpius Malfoy. "That is blasphemy! He is a gorgeous specimen of manliness, with divine biceps..." Lily stopped to gaze dramatically at the ceiling as though she was deeply in love with him. God forbid that ever to happen.

"He _is _an arrogant pompous little arse, though! You can't deny it! Not when he goes around being…well…arrogant and pompous all the time!" I snapped, slapping her lightly on her arm to stop her looking so dreamy over such a stupid pig of a boy.

"I was kidding, Rosie!" she said, rolling her eyes as I hit her on the arm again. "I agree, he is an arse, but you can't deny that he is…" Lily broke off as someone sat down on the chair next to me.

"Rose?"

Not that voice. I turned on my chair to find myself looking at the sheepish grin of none other than Lorcan Scamander. He was looking at me in such a way that you would never have believed him to be someone who would run off with another girl behind their girlfriend's back.

"Can I talk to you, Rosie?" He looked pointedly behind me, at Lily. "…_Privately_." Lily slammed her books together in a pile, and I could tell from her grimace that she was certainly not happy about leaving me with a 'traitorous bastard' as she so charmingly nicknamed him.

"I'll see you in ten minutes in the Gryffindor common room," she said angrily, flashing her eyes dangerously at Lorcan who looked slightly taken-aback at her less-than-friendly departure.

"Is she OK?"

What do I say to that? 'Oh yes, she's fine! She just hates your guts and can't believe you are even talking to me after your heartless actions!'

"Um," I stammer, rapidly formulating a reply. "PMS, I think." That reply seemed to be enough for him and he took his questioning eyes off Lily's retreating back and looked at me. If this was a month ago, I would have said he was looking at me 'with a gaze of deep love'.

Boy, was I lame.

But now he just looks like a bit of a pathetic wimp. Did I really used to think those puppy-dog eyes were endearing?

"Listen, Rosie," he began, taking my left hand in a fumbling motion. "I feel bad about how things ended between us." I snatched my hand back, and frowned slightly.  
"Bad enough to regret being a prat?" I asked him, as he flushed like he always did when he was under pressure.

He retrieved my hand again clutching it slightly more firmly. "Now, that's a bit harsh, isn't it? I may have been foolish, but I've seen the error of my ways. Like that ancient saying goes 'You don't know what you've got till you lose it.' Or…um…something like that."

I raised my eyebrows and produced a Slytherin inspired smirk. "Is this your pathetic way of apologising to me?" Lorcan's eyes flicked towards the bookshelf on our left, and back to me, before he nodded slightly. "Am I to understand that you've dumped your latest bimbo?" He nodded again, this time more confidently.  
"I don't know what I was thinking. Just, since we've been back at school you've been…well…you're gorgeous, Rosie. I always knew you were pretty, but…" He fumbled for words, and his gaze deftly flicked downwards, causing me to shuffle uncomfortably.

"Those are dangerous words to be saying to a taken girl, Scamander. I suggest you get your hands off her if you don't want to end up in the hospital wing for the next three weeks."

There is only one person in this entire castle that that drawling pompous tone could belong to. And I hope to God that he is fully dressed. I really don't need anything else to think about – least of all another encounter with his 'heavenly abs'.

Lorcan dropped my hand and stood up at the same time that I twisted around on my chair to be met with the still irksomely appealing sight of one Scorpius Malfoy leaning against a bookshelf, his arms folded nonchalantly across his chest. He caught my eye and gave me a look implying that I owed him for saving me from Lorcan and his creepy stares. I dread to think what sort of payment he has in mind.

I daresay I'll be looking to hibernate in a remote corner of the castle to avoid it, though.

"Malfoy, this is nothing to do with you," Lorcan spat, pushing his chair out of the way and standing between Scorpius and I, blocking my vision of him. Excellent…Now at least my thinking is coherent without me being distracted by the cute little platinum strand of hair that was flopping across his forehead.

"Actually, Scamander, this has a lot to do with me. After all, correct me if I'm wrong, but did you just say my girlfriend was _gorgeous_," Scorpius said. Lorcan was speechless.

_Why is he doing this?_ It wasn't in the fake-relationship job description for him to stand up for me. Not that I'm complaining, of course. Maybe he's not so much of an arse as I previously thought.

"You are not seriously dating this loser, are you?" Lorcan snapped in disgust, turning around to face me.

"It's irrelevant who I may, or may not be dating," I said, and Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"But you hate the guy! He's a total jerk, and he's more likely to cheat on you than I am!" Lorcan practically screeched.

Scorpius, in contrast to Lorcan's ruffled state, remained the epitome of calm and proceeded to examine a non-existant piece of dirt on his nails. "The only difference here, _freak_, is that you are the pathetic sod who _did _in fact cheat on her, whereas I have not, nor do I intend to. And, I think we can safely say she doesn't hate me, not when yesterday she –"

"I do not want to hear the sordid details of your sex life with my girlfriend, Malfoy," Lorcan fumed, his hands involuntarily clenching into fists.

"I think you'll find the term is _ex_-girlfriend," Scorpius snapped back. "Anyway, me and your _ex_-girlfriend better get going. We have private matters to discuss in our dorm." He uttered the last sentence, with his eyebrows raised letting the implications of this statement dawn on a enraged Lorcan.

It's official. Scorpius Malfoy is still an arse. And a perverted one at that.

I think he needs therapy for his raging hormones.

"Rosie?" the perverted arse held out a hand to pull me up from my chair, then wound his arm around my shoulders when I was standing, to sickened glares from Lorcan. "We'll see you later….Scamander."

The second we reached the Head's common room, I turned on him. "_What,_ in the name of all that is holy, was that about?" I demanded incredulously, as he flopped down on the sofa, with his hands behind his head and shut his eyes. Stupid sod.

Stupid, ugly…useless…_sod_.

His eyes flickered open, and he swept a lock of white blonde hair out of his face. I felt a sort of odd palpitation in my chest, but tried my hardest to I ignore it.

Cross 'ugly' off that list then.

"No need to be so cross, love. Besides, I think I deserve a thank you from rescuing you from that slimy git." He sat up slightly as he said this, and a bitter look flashed across his face.

I stepped over to him and poked him in the stomach. "Well, granted you saved me, even if I could have coped fine by myself." _poke_ "_But,_ at the same time you implied to my ex-boyfriend that we are somehow…um…" I paused slightly.

Scorpius sat up with an enormous grin covering his face. "Engaging in nightly activities?" He smirked even more obnoxiously at the look on my face, and placed both his arms up on the back of the sofa.

"_Yes_," I snapped through gritted teeth.

He sniggered loudly. "I apologise," he said sarcastically, with a look in his eyes that implied he was distinctly _not sorry_. Prat. "I forget that you Ravenclaws don't like to lie. I suppose it's against your goody-two-shoes' natures. So…maybe we should rectify that…error." He raised his eyebrows swiftly, as I narrowed my eyes at him in frustration.

"You sicken me," I snapped, after several seconds silence, stepping over his legs in an attempt to walk to my room without any more of his insinuations. However, I was stopped dead in my tracks when the big-headed pig started _laughing_. _LAUGHING_.

"You've even admitted it yourself, Weasel-bee, I don't sicken you in the slightest," he drawled condescendingly, picking himself up from the sofa, as I spun around with my arms folded.

"I think you'll find you DO sicken me," I replied.

He snorted, standing in front of me and mimicking my arms-crossed, foot-tapping posture. "I think you'll find I DON'T," he grinned. "And, I can _prove _it."

I rolled my eyes, my breathing slightly raspy as I formulated a reply with him standing less than a foot away. "You can't PROVE whether or not I THINK something. Not unless…" Scorpius frowned at me, looking confused, but slightly amused, at the widening of my eyes. "…Oh my god, you're a _legilimens! _You're _reading my mind!"_

"Don't be so far-fetched and ridiculous!" he laughed. "I was going to work it out the old-fashioned way." The old fashioned way? Um….huh? He looked a little annoyed that I hadn't figured it out. Dear Merlin, just because this boy is an expert in working out whether one is sickened by him doesn't mean we all are! "_The old-fashioned way…_" he repeated. "With a _kiss_."

Oh no.

I am not doing that.

No way.  
If I lose the ability to _speak_ just by _looking _at him, Merlin knows what I'll lose by _kissing_ the insufferable idiot. I might forget how to breathe. Or I might lose all my senses of reasoning. I'd fail my NEWTs!

I'm not willing to take that risk.

Unfortunately, all these thoughts simultaneously rolling round my head like a gigantic blender rendered me incapable of producing an answer to his latest declaration. Which then resulted in his lips colliding with mine so then I was officially incapable of any thought whatsoever, except for: I AM KISSING SCORPIUS MALFOY!

I suppose that's the pre-pubescent teen in my head talking there.

Everything in my head seemed to fizzle out, except for what seemed like dancing fireworks on the backs of my eyelids, which had shut of their own accord. My arms unfolded themselves and reached up around his neck, as his tightened around my waist, pulling our bodies closer so I could feel every lean quidditch-toned muscle against my own (slightly more pathetic) build.

How could I not have wanted to do this before?

* * *

**Hey everyone! **

**It's been about a week since I updated, which is a very short time for me so I'm happy that I could get this out to all of you to see what you think :) I've had an ENTIRE week off because of the snow in my town - we English people are rubbish when it comes to snow *rolls eyes* - so I've had loads of free time to write! (yay!)**

**Anyway, I hope you all like this! Please read and review, it makes my day! And if you have any suggestions, then let me know as well.**

**:) G X**


	8. Chapter Eight

**- CHAPTER EIGHT - **

"_Ah, Potter! Thank goodness I found you!" A tall, handsome, Italian-looking boy stated regarding the Slytherin common room, which was empty except for one slim red-headed girl with her arms folded and her eyebrows knitted into a frown._

"_Zabini, don't you think that after being my brother's friend for over 6 years you can stop the whole act that you can't remember my first name?" Lily snapped, not even bothering to lift her gaze from the bottom of the boy's staircase where it was currently fixed. Guilliano Zabini, unused to having someone – least of all a _girl_ – ignoring him, strode across the room and planted himself directly in her field of vision. _

_Lily groaned and rolled her eyes dramatically. "Zabini, this is no time for you being your usual self, I need to talk to my brother _now_."_

"_And why might that be?" Guilliano drawled, ruffling his hair in a way that he knew made him completely irresistible to girls. Lily didn't even bat an eyelid, and continued glaring past him at the staircase. The faint widening of his eyes, unnoticed to the girl in front of him, showed his immense irritation that she wasn't even remotely affected by his presence. _

"_Not that you should care, but it's do to with Rosie being ambushed by her dreadful ex-boyfriend in the library," Lily said, just as her brother, Albus, walked calmly down the stairs still in the process of perfecting his usual hairstyle – one which looked as though he had just jumped off his Nimbus 4000._

"_You called, sister," he said, a nonchalant but undeniably Potter-esque grin creeping over his handsome features. _

"_Yes, about _half a bloody hour ago_!" Lily snarled. Guilliano sniggered, but was silenced by a look from her. "Have you been doing your hair this whole time?" _

_Albus grinned sheepishly. "Maybe."_

"_Sometimes I actually wonder if you're a girl in a boy's body," Lily snapped, grabbing his arm and hauling him out of the Slytherin common room. "You better go rescue your cousin from that complete…_moron_, or I will crown you officially the worst relative EVER."_

"_You're forgetting that you're related to James."_

"_Fine, the SECOND worst relative ever," Lily snapped, taking the stairs two at a time, with Guilliano and Al struggling to keep up with her and her irritatingly determined legs. _

"_Why do I need to save her anyway? And which moron are you referring to?" Al asked._

_Lily sighed. "Isn't it obvious? You're saving her from Lorcan, and you're saving her _because_ he's a moron. Comprendez?" They skidded to a halt outside the library and Lily peered in. "They've gone!"_

_She seemed quite shocked, and also a little scared for her cousin. That idiot of a Ravenclaw wasn't someone she really wanted her favourite cousin hanging out with._

"_She probably ran for it and is currently hiding in a cupboard in the Head's common room," Guilliano interrupted Lily's train of thought, "with a book, obviously."_

_Al began to laugh but one glance from Lily shut him up and he quickly put on his 'serious' face. "Well, captain, where do you suggest we begin the search?"_

_Lily grinned. "Agent Potter, you go search the Head's common room. Agent Idiot-"_

"_Are you referring to _me_?" Guilliano demanded, pointing a tanned finger at his perfectly defined chest. Lily nodded with a sigh. "Can't I be Agent Hot, then?"_

"_No," Lily said with a tone of finality. "Agent Potter, why are you still here?"_

_Al glanced between his sister and Guilliano. "I didn't realise the orders were going to be put in place immediately! You should say these things! I'll go now!" And with that he set off at a slow jog – presumably to prevent any unwanted ruffling to his hair. _

"_What about Agent Suave?" _

"_What about Agent Shut Up Now?" Lily said angrily, folding her arms and regarding her brother's friend unpleasantly. _

"_I'm not sure I'm really _clicking_ with that name actually. How about-"_

"_That's it. You are no longer an agent. I'm denoting you. Now, listen, you are going to the Ravenclaw common room to look for the moron," she snapped, prodding him forcefully in the chest. _

_Guilliano smirked obnoxiously. "Which one?"_

"_You know full well which one, you pathetic lump of slime. I am going to go find the third idiot from your little trio of idiots. We gather here at…um…" she grabbed Guilliano's arm and twisted it so she could see the time on his very expensive watch, "half past 5. Got it?"_

"_Yes sir," he said, mock-saluting her. "I mean, ma'am."_

_*_

"Uh…Rosie?" Scorpius said, looking down from his significant height advantage to look at me like a Arithmancy calculation he couldn't quite get his head around. "If you have been hiding _that_ tongue under all those witty little remarks, then why the hell did Lorcan break up with you?"

He just ruined a beautiful moment.

I think I want to slap him.

Of all the moments to turn on his perv-machine, did it have to be _now_ when that moment that I have been unconsciously dreaming of my entire life just occurred. What am I thinking, of course it does. It's part of the Malfoy package – fabulous snog, followed by oblique sexual reference. There is no two ways about it.

Then it dawned on me.

I just _kissed_ Scorpius Malfoy.

SCORPIUS MALFOY.

The same blonde idiot who I have been resisting the urge to punch for the entire time I have known him. The same blonde idiot who pushed me in the swimming pool at Al's house when I was in my pyjamas and _holding a book_. The book was ruined by the way.

That very same idiot.

So why on earth did I just lock lips with him?

I stepped back. "Ugh…I'm sorry for what just happened. I think I've lost my sanity. I should probably go visit Madame Pomfrey directly," I said in serious, yet quavering, tone. She must have some sort of potion for romance-related mental breakdowns.

"Why are you sorry?" Scorpius frowned, then his eyebrows shot up and his trademark smirk appeared on his slightly more pink than usual lips. "I get it, you want to do it _again_. My, my, there's no pleasing you Ravenclaws and your voracious sexual appetites." He grinned goofily at me.

"I do not have a voracious sexual appetite, and I don't want to kiss you again, because that is the reason my brain has turned to mush," I told him, trying to dodge past him so I could get out the door to the hospital wing. He put both his hands on my shoulders.

"That happened to you too?"

The goofy joking smile had seemingly disappeared off his face, and I had the distinct impression that he was being truthful for the first time in his 17 years of life. "What do you mean?"

"The mushy brain syndrome, did you get that just then?"

I looked up at him. "Of course I did. That's why I need insanity curing potion." At this the seriousness vanished as quickly as it had come and he burst out laughing.

"You are such a goon!" He spluttered through his laughter. "I suppose that's why I love you." In seconds his lips were back on mine and I was completely lost again. His arms entwined around my waist and once again I reached up so my fingers were touching the soft strands of hair on the back on head.

It was the probably the first time in my entire life that I wasn't thinking something intelligent. The only thing I could think of was him. The way his hand curved in the small of my back like pieces of a puzzle. The way that when his lips touched mine my fingertips tingled. The way that pressed up against him I could feel his heart beating just as fast as mine was.

"Scorpius?_ Rosie?_" a high pitched squeak came from the somewhere near the doorway. Scorpius and I broke apart instantly and jumped apart so that there was a good three feet between us. I flattened down my hair sheepishly when I saw that it was Al standing in the doorway, his gaze flicking between Scorpius and I and his eyes wide in disbelief.

Hello, cousin! How lovely to see you!

"We were just doing our…Divination homework. Would you like to join us?" Scorpius said, in what I conceived to be the dummest lie that had ever crossed his lips.

Maybe I shouldn't think about his lips. Or anything about the way he does that thing….

STOP IT ROSIE.

Al's face, which a second ago looked as though it was going to implode, suddenly broke out into a slightly awkward grin. "Looks like Rosie's reminiscing."

"I hate you so much," I said miserably, trying my best not to let my attention flick towards Scorpius on my right.

"Maybe you shouldn't be saying things like that, after all, we both know that I have a valuable piece of information that I'm sure your father will be _dying_ to hear," Al drawled, a smirk adorning his face that even Salazar himself would have been proud of.

I looked up sharply and narrowed my eyes. "You wouldn't dare!" My father is going to kill me.

Farewell life. It was good whilst it lasted.

Goodbye common room, you are the home of many memories that will remain with me until I die. Next week.

And adieu Malfoy. I will forever remember the softness of your lips and how annoyingly hot you looked with your shirt off.

"I haven't written to my dear Uncle Ron in a long time, so I'll be off to the Owlery. Oh, and perhaps I'll jot one of to Mr Malfoy. Me and him have a _bond, _you know. Laters, lovebirds," Al grinned. Oh god no. Please no."Catch me if you can, fools!"

With that he turned on his heel and sprinted out the room. I turned my attention to Scorpius, priming myself to be ready to run.  
"There is no way he would actually do that. He is way too much of a wimp," Scorpius said, eyeing the empty doorway in astonishment.

"Is that a risk you really want to take?" I asked, my eyebrows raised.

"No, not really. RUN!"

* * *

**This was originally where I had planned to end this story, but I'm still kind of debating whether or not to continue it, because I do have a few plot ideas. Let me know if you think I should :)**

**I hope you enjoyed it! Leave me a review if you have any suggestions, or if you think I should just leave it here.**

**LOVE G X**


	9. Chapter Nine

_Mr R Weasley_

_The Auror Department_

_The Ministry Of Magic_

_Dad,_

_If Al sends you a letter, can I just tell you that it is NOT TRUE. Hugo dared him to do it._

_On another note, can you tell Mum to owl my muggle book on the theory of fractal imaging? I need it for Arithmancy._

_Love, Rosie._

* * *

_MR D MALFOY_

_Malfoy Manor_

_Wiltshire_

_Father,_

_I believe that my friend, Albus (or 'the Potter boy' as you call him), has sent you a _very_ unamusing letter. Don't even bother opening it. Just chuck it in the fire. Straight away._

_And tell Mother that I miss her loads, and ask her if she can owl one of my grey cashmere jumpers over. _

_Yours, Scorpius._

* * *

_Mr G Weasley_

_Weasley Wizard Wheezes (WWW)_

_Diagon Alley_

_Uncle George,_

_You are going to bloody love me for this. Check out these pictures I've sent you! Our very own bookworm, Rosie, in lip-lock with a very Malfoy-ish Malfoy. This is going to brighten up all of our Easters! _

_You know what to do…we talked about it last summer._

_Plan Give-Uncle-Ron-A-Heart-Attack is underway!_

_Yours sneakily, Albie._

_Albus Potter_

* * *

_Gryffindor_

_Hogwarts_

_HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_

_You are my favourite nephew for a reason, young Potter! Get me as much details as you possibly can…I can't wait until Valentine's day now._

_Uncle George_

* * *

"Did you send it?" I demanded immediately off of Malfoy. To tell you the truth, I was rather panicking at this point. My father would _not_ be able to see something like this as a joke.

And besides, that's all it is. A joke.

I'm not seriously considering dating a Malfoy because that would be utterly ridiculous and entirely against my moral compass. Malfoys are bad news, mainly because they are tall and have sneaky little beady eyes that are always up to something Slytherin-like.

"Of course I sent it," Malfoy informs me, giving me a degrading look with his beady little glare. "We just have to hope that the superior breeding of my Owl will mean that it arrives before Al's does."

I mean, what plausible reason would I even want to date Malfoy anyway? Granted he is pretty good looking. Actually, he is very good looking, but I am not a shallow person and I would never date someone purely for looks.

And, I suppose, he's quite intelligent. He did get 10 Outstandings at OWLs, but you don't date someone just because of that, do you?

"Uh…Rosie?"

His ears are sort of weirdly shaped as well. They remind me of little elf ears actually, because they're slightly pointed. You know, if he grew his hair really long and tied it in a plait, he would look like that guy from that muggle film about elves and short people with big feet and afros…

Not that that's a bad thing, he's a pretty good looking character.

I tried to draw my thoughts away from thinking about Malfoy's elf-like qualities, and squint at him through the bright sunlight that is filling the owlery. "Yeah?"

No, there is no way I could ever date Malfoy. Even if I wanted to. Which I don't. Of course.

Even if I did, my dad would _murder_ me, let's face it. I would be betraying the family name and whatnot, and he would probably disown me. Especially since this Malfoy is such a spitting image of his dad.

"I think we need to talk," he said, shuffling his feet slightly, and I got the feeling that he was a little bit nervous which is weird, because he is a Malfoy and therefore the concept of _feelings_ and _nerves_ are not familiar to him.

"Talk?" I squeaked oddly. "Oh yes…about the fake relationship! Well, the three weeks are up so you're safe to go back frolicking with your little…" I cast around for the right term to describe his 'cupboard partners', "…girlfriends."

Malfoy's jaw nearly dropped open.

"Oh, by the way, can I borrow the notes from that Charms lesson I missed because of my University interview? Professor Flitwick said he had a feeling Indigestion Charms might come up on our summer paper, because…"

Malfoy held up one pale and quite manly hand. His eyes flickered slightly in a manner that I am oh-so-familiar with. That is the look that gets into his eyes when he something isn't going quite the way he planned it to. "Hold on. Were you present in that common room, or was that an evil clone of you that I was snogging?"

Ah.

I had been attempting to avoid any conversation on the matter, because the question I do not want to be asked (though I have been mentally preparing an answer in my head for the past ten minutes) will undoubtedly come up: _Shall we go out?_ Or some other variant on the sentence.

But I can't exactly tell him that I can't date him because he has funny ears, and is too good-looking.

Hold on. This is _Malfoy_ we're talking about here. What am I thinking! He's not going to ask me out because he is _Scorpius Malfoy_ and he just doesn't ask girls out. He just snogs them and moves on. Which means, he has moved on now. Our snog has ended, and as lovely as it was, according the Malfoy rule-book he must move on.

That is it then. Any misguided feelings I have for the god-like boy standing in front of me are officially buried. Though I may permit the odd morsel of friendship to shine through, out of politeness, you know. After all, we have exchanged bodily fluids, in a manner of speaking.

"No, no…that was me. As I was saying, I asked Professor Flitwick…"

Malfoy looked slightly flabbergasted. "Is that _it?"_

"What do you mean, is that it? Is _what_ it?" I asked, slightly annoyed that he wouldn't just let me change the subject matter, after all, neither of us really want those feelings I just buried to come popping up again, do we?

Especially not him. Having a Weasley fall for him could severely lose him 'cool points' – a point system that I have not just invented for the sake of this conversation. It is in fact a system that was invented by Al, Zabini and Malfoy in first year.

I had zero cool points. They had upwards of 750. Each.

"_That_. The common room."

I smiled half-heartedly. "Malfoy, you snog girls all the time. I'm not under some deluded impression that that meant anything to you. I should probably go find Lily anyway, she'll need me to help her study. Or, in fact, to force her to study."

A quick side-step past a comeback-less Malfoy, and three further steps to the door led me out of the owlery and I made my way down the stairs, taking two at a time.

Five minutes later I had reached the Gryffindor common room, and managed to locate Lily in her dormitory, where she was pacing up and down the length of it, muttering various words under her breath that I shall not repeat due to their rude nature.

"…prat! Who does he think he is? Bloody marching in there…"

I jumped on Lily's bed and finally she was aware of my presence.

"Where have you been?" She demanded instantly, apparently forgetting any problems of her own. "I have sent a search party of the two biggest twits in the world looking for you after you vanished with dork-breath." I gave her a look. "I mean, Lorcan. And please don't tell me what Al said about you and Malfoy going at it like rabbits in the Head's common room was true."  
I hate that boy.

Hate him with every fibre of my being.

"We were not _going at it like rabbits_," I informed her, and her eyes widened as she realised the tone in my voice implied that we were in fact doing _something_.

"You _kissed_!"

"I…er…may have done. But it didn't mean anything," I said, twirling the corner of her four poster curtain around my finger, "Well, that's what I told him when he asked about it a minute ago."  
Lily stopped pacing altogether. "You told him it didn't mean anything?"

"Yes."  
"You idiot!"

I blinked. "I'm not an idiot. It was the truth, well for him anyway. I know it didn't mean anything to him, he's always kissing girls left, right and centre. And besides, I couldn't date a Malfoy…"

Lily smiled slightly, and sat down on the end of her bed. "Why ever not?" she said, a slight tone of amusement, knowing that my answer would no doubt cause no end of hilarity for her.

"He has funny looking ears."

Cue uncontrollable laughter.

When her laughter had finally subsided, she spoke slightly more seriously. "It's not that is it?"

"Well, that's a contributing factor," I admitted.

Lily contorted her features slightly that implied to me that she was thinking, and thinking rather deeply at that. "If I ask you a few questions, do you promise to answer them honestly?" I nodded, just to appease her.

"Do you like him?"

I gulped. "Nooo…" Lily raised her eyebrows at me. "Fine…yes, I do, but if you tell my dad I'll feed you to Hagrid's blast ended skrewts."

"Do you think he is attractive?"

"We've been through this. Yes, I find him attractive, and No, I do not want to find him attractive."  
"So you like him, and you find him attractive?" she confirmed. I nodded. "And you don't want to go out with him _because…_"

I stopped, and thought for a second. Truthfully, I can't base not wanting to date someone purely on the shape of their ears, however oddly pointy they are.

And I'm not the sort of person that would refuse to date someone whose family disapproved.

I sighed. "Lily, if Lorcan cheated on me, and like you say, Lorcan isn't exactly Brad Pitt, then are you telling me Scorpius wouldn't? Every single girl under this roof has a crush on him, I suspect even Professor McGonagall does, otherwise he would never have made Head Boy."

"You are one _thick_ girl, Rosie Weasley." I glared at her. "And you have to figure out why on your own. In the meantime, you can try explain to me why that bloody Zabini creature took it upon himself to _punch my new boyfriend_ _in the face!_" Thankfully the conversation was dropped from then on and I was confronted with an hour long rant on the inappropriateness and annoyingness of Guilliano Zabini.

You know, if I didn't know any better, I would have said that she was nursing a soft spot for him. However, upon voicing this view I was met with the following outburst: "Pshhssh! Just because you fell for the guy you despise the most in the entire world, doesn't mean _I _will! I'm not a character out of some warped romance novel you know."

Meh. She totally likes him.

* * *

"Have you seen Scorp around?" Al asked, as he approached the Gryffindor table at dinner that evening. The growing smirk at the corner of his mouth suggested he found the whole situation he walked in on earlier very amusing.

And presumably the fact that he now has ammo against me is even more amusing to him.

Oh and the fact that he _wrote a letter to my father informing him of it_. That boy is going down, as soon as I get juicy enough gossip on him.

"No, I haven't seen him since earlier on in the owlery," I informed him, eating my carrots with a dignified expression and trying not to reach forward and poke my fork up his nose. "You know, where we were trying to repair the damage you inflicted upon us with letters to our parents."  
Al grinned widely. "You think I wrote to your dad, don't you?"

"Albus Potter, you are the most predictable person alive. I _know_ you wrote to my dad. It is the kind of thing you do," I told him.

"Scorpius is by the door, Al," Lily piped up, pointing towards the doors to the great hall with an uninterested expression.

"What? Where?" Al said, turning his smirking little face away from me. Lily flicked her gaze up so it met mine and she grinned a very gravy-ish grin at me, whilst I peered down at my own plate sullenly.

"Well, what do you know? Now he's walking our way," Lily took it upon herself to inform us, her gaze never leaving mine as she waggled her eyebrows in the most crudely suggestive way that I have ever seen – apart from any expression gracing the face of Guilliano Zabini.

I poke my carrot anxiously, my heart beating out a samba against my ribcage. So much for those bloody feelings being buried, I am useless at this sort of thing. Ignore the feelings. Ignore the footsteps getting closer and closer to the table.

"Lily?" I heard his voice say, as I twirled a carrot around on my plate. I wonder who he's moved on to now? "Guilliano wants to talk to you about something, I don't really know what…something about punching, I think."

Lily dragged her chair back forcefully and it scraped along the floor making a ghastly noise.

"I believe he was referring to that knuckle sandwich I owe him." She grinned, and bounded off out of the hall, leaving her plate full of dinner on the table.

"Al, I love you, man, but can you go away?"

I chose now, of all times, to look up and catch myself faced with a downright handsome looking Malfoy. Not that he isn't always downright handsome, just that today he looks far more downright handsome than I have ever noticed him looking before.

"Is that a new jumper?" I said, gulping down my nerves. Why am I even nervous? Alright, we kissed, but it meant _nothing_. Nothing whatsoever.

Well, it might have meant a teeny tiny bit of something to me, but not to him. He has swapped saliva with half the girls above third year in this hall, of _course_ it doesn't mean anything to him. I'm just another notch on the proverbial bed post.

"It is actually, do you like it?" He peered down at his chest and stroked the sleeve slightly, before shoving his forearm underneath my nose. "Here, stroke it. The cashmere is incredibly soft."

I am fair tempted to snort gravy over his sleeve, but I resist.

"Did you really come over here to discuss your cashmere jumper?" I asked, but I couldn't help it, his arm was still there, and so I reached out and stroked the soft fabric of the jumper, trying not to think about the fact that 7mm of expensive material was what separated my fingers from his skin. "You're right though, it is very soft…"

"Well," he murmured, pulling his arm away from me and leaning his elbow on the table, "as fascinating and alluring it is to have you stroke my arm so lovingly, we have matters of an important nature to discuss."

I swallowed and placed my fork down on the table, turning slightly to face him. "And these matters would be those concerning…"

"Concerning our impromptu snog in the Head's quarters, of course."

* * *

**I've been working on trying to continue this story for a while, and now that my exams are officially over, I thought I'd get to it. I'm not sure how many more chapters I'll do, it depends whether I get the impression people are liking it or not, so drop me a review to let me know what you think. **

**In case you hadn't realised, Rose is a bit wary of dating Scorpius straight away because, obviously, she's just been cheated on by Lorcan and because Scorpius is such a playboy she's worried he'll do the same thing to her. But don't worry, in the next chapter all is sorted out :) **

**I really wanted to get this out there, so if there are any mistakes, or things that you think are wrong with it, let me know and I'll sort them out. :) Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed so far.**

**G X**


	10. Chapter Ten

**Chapter Ten**

"We already talked. You're free to sow your wild oats, or torture Gryffindors, whatever tickles your fancy. You are no longer bound to be my fake boyfriend," I told him politely.

He must not know that I enjoyed that kiss. Because I have no doubt that he will misuse that information to torment me for many decades to come. Never will I be able to escape the anguish that admitting I enjoyed it would cause.

Malfoy waved a hand airily in front of himself, making a nice little breeze which without which I think my face would have turned redder much, much faster. "We don't need to talk about _that_, we need to talk about you."

I gasped falsely, and clutched a hand to my chest. "Me? How selfless of you, Malfoy? And here I was thinking you were completely without a heart," I formulated drily.

"I meant," he sighed, "you AND me. The two of us. Weasley plus Malfoy."

I frowned slightly at his terrible attempt at a mathematical sum, and feigned confusion, knowing this would annoy him more. "What about us? There is no us. We're over."

At that moment, two things occurred simultaneously. One, Lorcan piped up from two seats down the table, where he had been pretending not to listen to our conversation (badly), "OVER?".

And two, Malfoy leant forward and pressed his lips to mine for approximately 5 seconds. I must approximate because the first several seconds were spent in a mingled condition of pure shock at him having the audacity to attack me in public, and pure elation at having his lips on mine.

But then it ended.

Unfortunately.

I mean, fortunately.

I mean…I don't even know what I mean any more.

"Did you feel anything?" he asked, his hand still resting on my arm, and I was so aware of the fact that he was touching me that I could have sworn I could feel his heartbeat.

Or maybe that was mine, it was being so loud. No one else can hear it can they?

Well, whether or not everyone else could hear my heart beating at about twice its maximum capacity, the entire hall was still looking in our direction, the conversation dimming down to silence.

"Of course I did, I felt your nasty smirking lips touch mine."

Malfoy rolled his eyes, though I could see the slightest hint of a smirk touching on one corner of his mouth. "Tell me if you felt something…or…" He paused, presumably for dramatic effect, now that the whole hall was listening in. Nosy sods. "…or…I'll do it again."

An interesting predicament.

"Err…I felt nothing."

My, my, I have an inner Slytherin after all. His lips touched mine again, eliciting the same response as before, but with more elation and less shock. And that is when I decided. I don't care if he might do a Lorcan and go off with some blonde bimbo who can't tell her kneecap from her bum.

I can't keep pretending I don't like him. The bloody feelings just _refuse to be buried_. Damn them.

"Well," he demanded, looking a little like a petulant child, "Anything now?"

"Still nothing," I told him, looking pensive about it. "Maybe we should try again. Third time lucky, eh?"

This comment, made Malfoy grin for a split-second. But I knew what was running through his mind. I had more or less admitted that I liked him, but that isn't enough for the mighty Malfoy. He doesn't want some half-ditch attempt to convey my feelings, he needed me to say them _out loud_.

I was cursing the day this boy was born. Why did he have to do this right now? IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE SCHOOL?

"Did you feel anything…or not?"

I decided that I was just going to annoy him a bit more, as payback for choosing such an inopportune moment. "Why do you want to know, anyway?"

"Because," he tutted, giving me a look that suggested he thought this conversation about as pointless as teaching a flobberworm to sing the national anthem, "you appear to be under some deluded impression that me kissing you in the common room meant nothing."

A collective gasp ran through the crowd, followed by a sharp but clearly heard, "WHAT?" from Lorcan's direction. McGonagall's eyes were wide at the teacher's table, though I noticed she wasn't doing anything to stop this embarrassing torment.

She is no longer my favourite teacher.

"It didn't mean anything….to you anyway, you've kissed every girl under the sun," I muttered, trying to be quiet, but of course, in a deathly quiet hall even a whisper echoes.

"Rosie, it meant something."  
_Rosie_. My name has never sounded so lovely.

"It can't have meant something. You don't like me. I'm your best friend's freakishly frizzy haired cousin, and you're Malfoy who used to play tricks on me and push me into swimming pools."

Malfoy stifled a laugh. "That was _once,_ and it wasn't because I didn't like you."

I folded my arms and the sarcastic tone overcame me. "Oh, do you regularly push your besties into chlorinated water, or am I just one of the lucky few?"

I could see Al out of the corner of my eye laughing his head off over at the Slytherin table.

"I pushed you in for…well, my own agenda, shall we say," Malfoy admitted, looking a little bit bashful about it. Bashful but incredibly hot. That jumper really went with his eyes, I concluded quickly in my thoughts.

"What agenda?" I asked.

"Put it this way, I calculated that if I got you wet you would at some point have to remove your sodden garments," Malfoy smirked. Several of the boys in the hall tittered loudly, and many of the girls let out indignant gasps. Though I did hear a few girls (shamefully on the Gryffindor table) muttering that they wished he was there to watch them remove their sodden garments.

"You're disgusting."

He raised his left eyebrow. "It worked, didn't it?"

"You are actually, officially, disgusting," I said, shaking my head.

Malfoy shrugged his shoulders. "Yep, I am. But I'm not a liar." His grey eyes locked onto mine and the intensity of his gaze made me blink several times, and embarrassingly turn the darkest shade of magenta I could possibly ever have imagined was possible for a face to turn. "And that…that….that kiss…It meant something to me. And if it didn't to you, that's fine. I understand I'm not your type, you like bookish dorky freaks like Scamander…" Lorcan let out the loudest and most unattractive snort I had heard in many a moon. "No offence, mate…and I prefer Quidditch to literary masterpieces."

Lorcan stood up, his chair dropping to the floor behind him. Apparently that was one insult too many from Malfoy for him to take. "Were you two ever _actually dating_? What kind of sick joke is going on here?"  
Oh dear. Now is the time it is going to come out. What an epic fail. Though, at least Al has stopped laughing at this point. He's probably saving it for several seconds time when Malfoy reveals our plan to the entire school. "We weren't dating, we were _fake dating_ to make you realise what you were missing, you long-haired twerp."

I choked back a laugh.  
Malfoy continued. "Though why you needed your ex-girlfriend to date a magnificent God like me to make you realise she's amazing is beyond me."

Amazing?

Did Malfoy just call me amazing?

From now on I shall call him Scorpius. As a mark of respect, you know. I grinned widely.

"So, if you two aren't dating…" Lorcan stumbled over his chair and stood in front of me. "That means you and me can try again. You know I'm sorry…"

MERLIN! Could this day get any more embarrassing?

"Shut up, Scamander," Scorpius snapped, rather rudely. "I was in the middle of confessing my undying devotion to your ex-girlfriend and you are _ruining the moment!_"

"You're devoted to me undyingly?" I interjected sarcastically. There is no way Scorpius would ever be devoted to someone at all, let alone in an undying fashion.

"Nah…I just thought it sounded more dramatic than me just saying that I think you're cool," Scorpius shrugged.

Fair enough.

I don't want undying devotion anyway. If I wanted that I would have asked for a Labrador for Christmas.

Lorcan folded his arms, and faced Scorpius smartly. "How _touching_…" he mocked sarcastically.

"Scamander, seriously, I am _this_," Scorpius pressed his finger and thumb together to indicate a small amount, "close to hexing your balls of right now."

Bye, bye Head Boy badge.

He turned to me, after Lorcan was silenced by his outburst. "Rosie, I know this is awkward because you know, the whole school is listening, but can you please just admit you find me attractive and want to carry on what we started in the Head's quarters…" Scorpius flashed me is goofiest, cutest grin and I felt my insides clench. Damn that smile!

Lorcan pushed Scorpius towards the table, in a way that suggested he was gearing up for a fight. I really do not want two guys fighting over me. I am HEAD GIRL. I must set an example, and this is _not_ how to do it.

"No need to discuss that in public, you sick ferret, and get away from her." Lorcan decided that this was an opportune moment to kneel down in front of me. What a twit. "Rosie. Sweet, kind, Rosie. I was an idiot, but I accept that, and I…I love you, Rosie. And I want us to be together."

Scorpius looked entirely outraged at this outburst from Lorcan, and I was outraged too. Who was he to be telling me that he wanted to be together when he abandoned me at the drop of a hat for a random girl?

"On second thoughts, I'm not going to ask you ever to go out with me, as long as you promise never to go out with him either!" Scorpius growled.

I flashed him a death glare, but he still looked like he wanted to murder Lorcan. Why weren't the teachers helping me here? For heaven's sake! Do they not want to preserve the reputation of their Head Girl?

"Lorcan, I'm sorry," I said, quieter than the boys had been shouting. "I've moved on, but I'm sure you'll find someone that you really like and you'll move on to…"

"Bollocks! What braindead bimbo is ever going to want to-"

"Malfoy, shut up!" I shot at him, trying not to burst out laughing. "As I was saying, Lorcan, you're clever and nice and I know you'll be happier with someone else." I have to say, I think that was very diplomatic of me. I deserve a Nobel Peace prize. Or at least an award for services to the school.

"Hmph." I heard Scorpius shuffle his feet a bit.

"And _you_," I spun around on my heel, "You irritate me _no end_. You are the most obnoxious GIT in the entire world…no, the entire _universe_." I could hear Al laughing again. "But, yes, I'll admit that I…may have…at one point…found you slightly less repulsive than usual."

Scorpius looked as though a combination of Christmas and a sale at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes had come early. "HA! I knew it! You like me!"

What. A. Child.

He is so incredibly immature, it actually sometimes causes me physical pain to see him jumping up and down on the spot in such an uncouth manner. Why was this boy chosen as Head Boy again?

"You like me too!" I retorted, resorting to childlike methods to combat his childlike behaviour. "In fact you liked me first!"

"How could I have? You fell for me the moment you saw my floppy blonde locks on the train in first year," he grinned.

What a complete lie!

"Actually, I didn't start liking you until you felt me up under the table at the beginning of term!"

I cannot believe I just admitted that.

Nor could McGonagall, judging by the squeal that she emitted, and the gnarled hand that clamped over her mouth. Suffice to say, I don't think I shall be Head Girl for much longer.

"I knew he was feeling you up!" Lorcan shouted from behind me. I ignored him.

"When did you start liking me, Malfoy? Go on…Tell us. We're dying to know."

Al was roaring with laughter, but in one gasping breath before he broke out into more chuckles, he managed to let out, "Go on, Malfoy, me old pal. Now's your chance. Tell her!"

I had never seen Scorpius look so embarrassed in his entire life. He darted his gaze around everywhere…the floor, the ceiling…anywhere, but my eyes that were smirking at him evilly.

Oh yes. I am evil now.

"Since fourth year. When I pushed you in the swimming pool."  
I may be evil now, but I'm not going to be cruel. I'm nice evil, if that were possible. Upon this statement, deciding that I had pretty much officially already lost my Head Girl badge, so it didn't matter any more anyway, I flung myself at the poor buffoon standing embarrassed in front of me and pressed my lips to his.

Heaven.

We broke apart, and a flash of light caught the corner of my eye. Was that Hugo? With a _camera_?

* * *

_Mr G Weasley_

_Weasley Wizard Wheezes_

_Diagon Alley_

_Uncle G_

_I have loads of Rosie and Malfoy snogging pics. If you want them for yours and Al's secret plan, please let me know. But they are pretty hilarious and I think I might enlarge them and plaster them over every wall in our house. _

_I think dad would really appreciate that, and I am nothing if not polite to my dearest father._

_Hugs from Hugo_

**Helloooo :) I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**I have plans for what is to come and it will probably take another two or three chapters, so hang on in there and I'll post it as soon as I'm happy with it. Let me know what you think of this one, and also if you have any ideas etc.. you want to give me the go for it. **

**G X**


	11. Chapter Eleven

**I am so so sorry! I began writing this a good few months ago, then it vanished to the depths of my laptop, because I forgot where I saved it. I came across it today, and so many people have asked me to carry on with this story so I thought I better finish it and get it up as quickly as possible. Because of my fast typing there may be a couple of errors, but I thought you could cope with the odd spelling mistake if it meant you got to read more :) I hope it's worth it. Let me know in a review.**

**This chapter begins on Valentine's Day, and if you don't remember Uncle George and Al were planning a sneaky little surprise for Ron for this day...**

**I'm not sure if I'll continue this further, it sort of depends on what all you readers think of it and whether I can think of a direction for it to go in. But I might consider writing a sequel/sidelong project about Zabini and Lily, because we all need a bit of their love in our lives, methinks. :)**

**Gco. **

**- CHAPTER ELEVEN -**

I sat down on the kitchen table at the humble Weasley abode for breakfast. I was heading back to school later that day, as we'd just had a week off for half-term and Hugo and I had been hauled back home to keep dad company seeing as he apparantly couldn't stand mum's constant reading. Hugo finished the Sport's section of the Prophet he was reading and chucked the paper in my direction with a: "You can read this if you want."  
I lifted my toast to my mouth and just as I aimed it directly into my mouth, I completely missed slabbering it directly down the side of my face so I ended up with a very jammy cheek. Hugo let out a gasp of laughter.

What. The. Hell.

Why is the front page of the Daily Prophet dedicated to a MAHOOSIVE picture of me and Scorpius engaged in frantic lip-lock in the Great Hall?

And why, in Merlin's name, does it say that there is a four page exclusive into a 'secret Malfoy/Weasley romance'?

_**February 14**__**th**__** – DAILY PROPHET VALENTINE'S SPECIAL**_

_**TOP TEN COUPLES OF THE YEAR**_

_**1) ROSE'S ARE RED, MALFOY'S ARE TOO…**_

_**Romeo and Juliet reborn? Teddy Lupin, Daily Prophet Head Reporter, explores the latest romance to burst onto the Potter-Weasley gossip scene.**_

TEDDY? Is no one in this family loyal to their own blood any more? Can I trust NO ONE?

_Now this is a story I daresay none of us here at the Prophet thought we would be writing any time soon. _

_That was sarcasm by the way._

_Anyone who knows these two (I can count myself among the unlucky few) can tell that they have been entirely mad about each other since one of them pushed the other in a swimming pool. I shall mention no names, though I can provide photographic evidence for anyone who desires it. _

Kill me now.

_I can confirm, however, that these two, namely Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy, are now officially an item. Not only that, my sources and spies in the Weasley family wisely inform me that the two are in fact planning a summer wedding._

_There have been rumours that they are in fact expecting a mini-Weasley-Malfoy, and that this is the reason for the impending nuptials, but I can neither confirm or reject this theory. _

Married? Who comes up with this crap?

And _pregnant_? Teddy is going to die a slow, painful death by my hand because of this.

_The most extra-ordinary thing about this couple is the long-surviving feud between the two families, and I imagine their future battles to bridge the gap between war heroes and war villains will be a difficult one. _

_Turn to page 6 for exclusive pictures of the duo that is the hottest couple of the new year and an exclusive interview with our man on the inside - bringing us the teenage tales of love from Hogwarts castle._

"HERMY! Where are my pants?"

Oh shit. My father was on his way, and obviously on the prowl for some clean underwear. My brother was happily chortling away at the streak of jam and marmalade down my left cheek. My mother was god-knows-where…probably reading a book or something. And I…well I was sitting at the breakfast table holding the newspaper that my _face was plastered all over_. A newspaper article that spelled my impending doom.

You see, Scorpius and I thought it would be better _not_ to inform our parental units about the fact that we have exchanged saliva. We imagined that it would invoke a typical reaction from my father (red ears, shallow breathing, and other general symptoms of a cardiac arrest) and a not-so-typical reaction from his usually cool, collected father (red ears, shallow breathing, cursed promises of imminent murder).

Judging from our predicted reactions, the last thing we really wanted was them to find out suddenly, as the shock would put both of their cardiac systems into overdrive. No…the best thing to do was to let them wallow in cheerfulness and ignorance, and then if we were still together before we both headed off to work/more schooling then we could slowly spring it on them.

Clearly that plan was never going to be functional what with…

Hold on... does that say '_Images courtesy of H Weasley and A Potter' _under that gigantic one of us snogging in the Head's common room?

"Hugo! Are you insane? Do you want dad to have a fit?" I snapped at Hugo who had resolved the issue of not being able to breath through laughter by dropping off his chair onto the ground and clutching his belly in an attempt to prevent it from exploding. Oh yes. This whole situation is just _bloody amusing_ for him isn't it.

"You do realise that he is_ officially_ going to murder me for this, don't you? You have broken down the family harmony, Dad will _kill_ me…Dad is going to go to Askaban!" I shot at him as he continued to writhe around on the floor making primitive hand gestures that I can only assume meant that he was incapable of speech due to laughter.

"Askaban? Why would I go to Askaban?" Dad growled, shuffling his way into the kitchen, his eyebrows furrowed with a very dark expression on his face. "I need food."

Hugo managed to extricate himself from being tangled up with a chair (this had occurred during his laughing fit) and calm his erratic breathing so he could haul himself back up to a seating position and ask, "Dad…have you seen the papers this morning? There's a really fascinating article about the Chudley Cannons in the Sport section."

Dad shoves a slice of toast into his mouth and after two bites the entire thing is gone. "Did Teddy write it? Or does he still write that gay little gossip column?"  
Hugo clutched a hand to his chest dramatically. The mark of a true thespian, that is. "Gay? That column's not _gay_. Sometimes it has the most _fascinating_ tales in it. You should see it this week for example…"

Dad drew back a chair from the table and sat down. "What is it? Another one of Uncle Harry's successes in a 'most attractive chosen one' article?"

"I thought he was the only chosen one?" I said, anxiously shifting my bum so that I am sitting on the newspaper. Hugo could see one of the corners poking out from the edge of my chair and burst into another round of silent chortles.

"Yeah, he's the only chosen one in a saving-the-world-from-dark-wizards context, but there's a variety otherwise. I'm the chosen one for the spokesperson for the campaign against ginger racism, for example…" I had the slightest feeling that he was going to go on another one of his endless rants about the discrimination against the red-headed minority and decided that this was an excellent time to subtly edge out of the kitchen clutching the newspaper.

"Rosie? Is that the paper?" Dad asked from the table. Bum. Bum. "Chuck it over here would you. I want to read this thing about the Chudley Cannons."

Err…How do I get out of this one?

"Shall I read it to you?"

Nice one, Rosie. Real ingenious. You really are a master of all subtlety.  
"Rosie, no matter what your mother might tell you I _can read_."

I gripped the paper tightly.

"Oh, sod it. _Accio paper_." Dad grumbled as Mum walked into the room, and Dad cleanly snatched the soaring paper out of the air.

Mum put both her hands on her hips and turned to face us all at the table. "Ronald, what have I told you about using magic unnecess-"

"_MALFOY!" _

Oh crap.

* * *

_Scorpiarse…_

_We have major issues. Daddy Weasley has seen the papers. I don't know if you have yet but I would advise you to NOT LET ANY PREJUDICED PARENTS SEE IT._

_Over and out._

_Rose soon-to-be-dead Weasley_

* * *

_Hey Mrs Malfoy!_

_I mean, Rose._

_It was real nice of you to tell me about our marriage. If we can't trust each other in this relationship then I don't really see it working out.  
Oh and you can have full custody of our child. I don't want to run the risk of it being ginger. _

_CHEER UP WIFEY!_

_Worse things could have happened._

_Love your loyal loving husband, Scorpius. _

* * *

_MR D Malfoy_

_Malfoy Manor_

_Wiltshire_

_Alright now, Ferret boy,_

_You better explain to me why your disgusting slimy son is on the front page of the Daily Prophet groping my daughter, because if you don't I swear to God I will punch you harder than Hermione did in third year._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Mr Ron Weasley_

* * *

_Wifey,_

_Oh dear. Your mental father wrote to my mental father._

_If we don't survive this battle just know…you are the best kisser I have ever met._

_Love Husband._

* * *

_Dear 'Husband',_

_You sent this to the wrong . This is Rose's father, and if I ever hear you mention her in such a context again your life will not be worth living. Understood?_

_Ron Weasley_

* * *

"Yo, yo, yo! Mr Z is in the house!" Zabini shouted, bursting joyously into one of his best friend's bedroom. Scorpius Malfoy lifted his head up from his pillow and let out a strangled sob.

Zabini's features dropped. "Who the hell rained on your parade? Oh no...don't tell me that _bloody_ house-elf gave you corned beef for breakfast again. I am going to _kill_ that little green devil!"

Scorpius rolled over onto his back and sat up. "It's not the house-elf. He gave me a nice breakfast this morning. Scrambled eggs on toast. It's... It's..." Scorpius' face became lined with shock and misery. "Merlin! I can't even say his name!"

Guilliano Zabini jumped onto the foot of his friend's best and tucked his feet under the thick goose-down duvet. "You better say it at some point this fine morning or I'll never know who you're on about."

"It's Him. Al's uncle! The one who's going to kill me!" Scorpius turned around and buried his face in his pillow again.

Guilliano registered understanding on his face about what his friend was going on about. "I suppose you're talking about _this_!" He hauled his bag onto the bed and pulled out a significantly large pile of magazines. He picked the first one, a newspaper, off the pile and held it up. "_Malfoy-Weasley Romance Hits Magical World._ Intriguing. I wonder what that could be about?"

With a sarcastic grin at his friend, who had lifted his head up in terror from his pillow again he threw the newspaper behind his head where it landed splayed out on the floor next to a pair of extremely expensive shoes.

Guilliano lifted the next magazine off the pile. "_The New Romeo And Juliet: Inside Exclusive._" This magazine then joined the newspaper on the floor. "_War Hero's Daughter Marries War Villain's Son. _Ooh! Villain! This is like one of those Muggle pantomimes!_"_ Another magazine joined the two on the floor. "_Till Death Do Us Part – The Disastrous Consequences of Forbidden Love._ Honestly, Malfoy. You should have read this article before. The consequences are disastrous!"

Scorpius let out a pitiful sob as Guilliano picked up another magazine. "_Bertie Bott's Bean Factory Goes Bust_." Guilliano met Scorpius' eyes over the top of the magazine. "NOOOO! How could they do this to me?"

"I think rank-tasting jelly beans are the least of our worries right now."

Guilliano closed the magazine sharply. "What makes you say that?"

Scorpius leant across and picked up the next newspaper from the pile. "_For Richer, For Gryffindor-er – The latest in a string of Slytherin-Gyffindor romances has hit the headlines this week, but this time it's different. This isn't just your typical Romeo and Juliet scenario, this is a full blown Chosen One – Dark Lord feud, that has culminated in the most romantic of entanglements yet. Who knew that a Malfoy and a Weasley could ever find their happy ever after_?" Scorpius slammed the paper down onto the bed. "Do you get the picture now, Zabini? The entire wizard world now knows that I have snogged Weasley."

Zabini lifted up a copy of Gardening Weekly, emblazoned on the front cover with a large picture of Scorpius and Rose kissing and the caption: "_How to Trim Your Own Two Lover's Hedges!"_

"Not everyone. I'm sure there are a couple of giants living as hermits in otherwise unexplored Mongolia who don't know."

Scorpius groaned. "Surprisingly, that doesn't make me feel any better."

"Cheer up you grumpy little sod. What's the worst that could happen, anyway?"

Scorpius looked up at him. "Oh, let me just think, there for a second. _He could kill me_!"

Guilliano shook his head. "Nah, that's illegal."

"Somehow I think his moral judgement may be slightly impaired given that there is a picture of me groping his daughter's bottom on the front page of the Daily Prophet. Oh, and somewhere among there the rumour that I've gotten her pregnant and that we're eloping has got out."

Guilliano couldn't help but chuckle slightly.

"We've kissed _TWICE_. Twice with tongues anyway. How could she _possibly_ be pregnant?"

Someone knocked on the door and opened it. "That was too much information for Grimmy, Master Malfoy."

"Don't listen in then." Guilliano glared at the House-elf, remembering the corned beef for breakfast incident very well.

"Mr Malfoy would like to see you in the drawing room, Master Malfoy." He rubbed his hands on his smart House-elf robe and then glared at Guilliano. "_Alone_," he added pointedly.

Scorpius got up. "Zabini, wait here. Grimmy, go to the kitchens. I don't want you two arguing about the corned beef again. I'm not in the mood for your weird little squabbling." He opened the door to his bedroom, and walked out. For the first time in his life he was glad that his house was so huge. It meant that it took him a full five minutes to even reach the door of the Drawing Room, which was in a completely different wing to his bedroom.

He opened the door hesitantly, to find his mother sitting on the sofa with a calm smile and his father pacing up and down in front of the fireplace.

"You called?" He said, his voice croaking slightly. This was it. He was going to be removed from the line of inheritance of the family and kicked out to live on the streets of Muggle London.

Oh Merlin. This was the _end_.

"Yes. You know I got this letter from Mr Weasley this morning," Malfoy senior waved the offending letter in the air. Scorpius gulped. "Well, I wasn't sure what he was on about, so I waited for my newspaper to arrive, and you can imagine my surprise when I saw the first page."

Scorpius was in agony. He looked to his mother for help. "Are you engaged?" She asked him, quite seriously. As if this was something she could honestly imagine him doing. Getting _engaged. _Honestly.

"No," he informed them. "Of course I'm not! I'm _seventeen!"_

Malfoy senior nodded his head. "Alright. And is she pregnant?"

"No! Of course she's not!"

Mrs Malfoy smiled. "She looks very nice from the pictures."

"How can you see her face, it's glued to your son's?" Malfoy senior asked, peering over his wife's shoulder at the front of the newspaper, before glancing over at his son and barely suppressing a laugh.

Scorpius was in shock. "Aren't you mad?"

"Scorpius, son. If it's either her or Parkinson's daughter, then I can't exactly be mad at you for choosing the one that can brew a potion without killing half the class. Besides, if you're friends with a Potter then I suppose it's sod's law that you'd fall for a Weasley."

Scorpius breathed a sigh of relief. He was _alive_! And his dad wasn't even mad in the slightest! He only dreaded to think of what was going down at Weasley Central down at the Burrow.

* * *

"This meeting has been called to order to discuss important matters that have been brought to our attention courtesy of Teddy Lupin and his Gossip column."

Oh. Yes. The Weasley family has sunk to this level. A family meeting, called about a poxy relationship. It's only Malfoy for god's sakes! I know he's son of a chap who was on the Dark Lord's side and whatnot, and that he's an arrogant annoying twerp. But they accepted him as Al's friend!

This is unnecessary.

Uncle George rolled his eyes. "Percy, this is a bloody family gathering not a conference on Cauldron bottoms."

Uncle Percy sat down indignantly. "You carry on then."

I shuffled down in my seat a bit further, trying to see how much I could hide under the table without completely disappearing from view. Al pulled me back up my chair.

"Ladies and Gentlemen...and Errol." The ageing owl let out a withered hoot from his perch in the corner of the room, the position that he rarely left these days after getting on the wrong side of a cat flap seven years previously. "Welcome to Operation Freak Ron Out."

Al stood up as well. "I thought it was Plan Give-Uncle-Ron-A-Heart-Attack?"

"It was. Until it failed. Unfortunately, no heart attack occurred, though I do think there was a bit of frenzy in his cardiac system earlier on."

My dad stood up now, staring at Uncle George with frightful ferocity. "You mean to tell me, this is all a farce?"

"Um," Uncle George said.

"Err..." Al eloquently added.

This is not going to be good. I smiled gingerly at my dad, but unfortunately he was looking the other way so didn't catch my gesture of daughterly love.

"Of course it was, you silly old man!" Lily said jumping up. "All fake. All planned. Even the pictures aren't real. They're actors."

Uncle George, Al, Hugo and I looked at Lily, unconvinced. Dad, however, bought this story hook, line and sinker.

"Thank MERLIN for that! Can you imagine what life would be like if Rose really _had_ fallen for a bloody Malfoy? I'd have ferrets for grandchildren." He laughed loudly, high-fiving Uncle George. "Nice little play there, brother. I'm going to get you back for this though."

Oh no. Why is it that a confusing situation is always made even more confusing by Lily and her little methods of turning things around? What am I going to do now if Scorpius and I really _do_ get married?

Not that we are going to.

We are young.

And free.

I'm not saying that we're in _love_ or anything! Ha Ha! I may fancy a Malfoy and find his bum somewhat delightful to look at, but in no manner of speaking does that mean I _love_ him.

Honestly. How stupid can one be?

A burst of green flame shot up from the fireplace at the end of the room, and in surprise, the entire family turned to look at it. If we were all here, then who the hell was turning up to our private family meeting?

As a person came spinning into the fireplace, I had a sudden overwhelming sense of déjà-vu. It was Malfoy, standing in the fireplace, looking as dashing as ever (but with slightly more ruffled hair). Only this time, he was frantically gazing around the room in shock.

My dad stood up. Even though he 'knew' this whole scenario to be a fake, even though it wasn't, he was still not looking too happy about seeing Malfoy so soon after the news of its apparent fakery was blown to him. "What are you doing here, son of ferret?"

Malfoy crinkled his nose at the reference to ferrets, and then his face dropped into a more serious, calm one. "I am not a ferret, and I think the time has come for you to accept this whole fiasco, because if my parents can be forgiving of my bizarre taste, then so can you for Rose!"

"Err...What?"

Nice one Malfoy. Play it by ear eh? Just jump right in there for the kill when we had JUST convinced him that there was nothing in it, and that it was an elaborate joke purely for his amusement. Smooth play there, you son of ferret.

I like this name.

For future reference: Son of ferret – sounds good in circumstances that require vaguely venomous insults.

"I'm sorry, Mr Weasley. But I love your daughter and if you did too then you would accept me."

Uncle George attempted to sidle nonchalantly out of the room, but failed as my Dad turned to him. His face paled significantly. "So...we _may_ have been joking when we said it was a joke. Ha...ha?"


End file.
